The Los Angeles Dodgers’ lead in the National League West is down to one game for the first time since June 14 after their 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels and the San Diego Padres’ 4-1 win over the San Francisco Giants on Monday.
The Dodgers and Padres have been trending in opposite directions for the last month or so, with L.A. sporting a 12-19 record since July 4. In comparison, San Diego has gone 21-12 during the same span.
The Dodgers’ struggles can be attributed to different factors, including injuries and several key players underperforming. Meanwhile, the Padres have found some momentum since making multiple moves at the trade deadline.
Although the Padres are breathing down their necks heading into back-to-back weekend matchups, Max Muncy said the Dodgers are only focused on what they can control.
“I’ll let you guys scoreboard watch for me. You’ve heard me say it a million times. We try to focus on what’s going on here and on this field,” Muncy said.
“We don’t worry about what’s going on anywhere else. It sucks, but we’ve got to focus on ourselves. We can’t worry about what anyone else is doing. We need to focus on ourselves and like I said, snap out of what’s going on.”
After going just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position on Sunday, the Dodgers fell into a 7-0 hole against the Angels and didn’t really have many opportunities outside of a four-run eighth inning.
“It was a bad loss,” Muncy said after the Freeway Series opener. “It’s a really bad loss for us. There’s not really any way of getting around that, but we made them use some pitchers.
“They had to bring Kenley into the game. If you try to find a positive out of it, it’s at least that. You have a three-game series, and that might mean he’s down for one of them at least. Just a bad loss.”
Max Muncy frustrated Dodgers not sustaining momentum
Perhaps most concerning about the Dodgers’ struggles since the Fourth of July is that they have not won more than two games in a row at any point.
“Yeah, it’s not going well for us right now,” Muncy said. “We’ve got to find a way to snap out of it. No one is going to feel sorry for us, so it’s on us to find our way out of it. We need to do it.”
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