The Los Angeles Dodgers reached one of their lowest points of the season on Thursday when they were swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates in a three-game series at PNC Park.
That then was followed by losing to the Baltimore Orioles in walk-off fashion, dropping the Dodgers to just 22-31 since July 4. Their current stretch is part of consistently underperforming against teams with sub-.500 records.
Frustration has begun to set in the Dodgers clubhouse, with Miguel Rojas recently calling out the team’s poor play.
The veteran infielder believes the Dodgers need to start enjoying themselves more when playing and taking each game one day at a time, via Bill Plunkett of the Southern California News Group:
“I feel like, as an offense, we’re putting a little bit too much pressure on ourselves, because we feel the necessity of winning. And we’re really forgetting about the most important part, which is playing for each other and having some joy when we play this game,” Rojas said. “This is my personal opinion. I feel like ever since we started playing poorly a couple months ago, the pressure and frustration has been building up on the team. And I don’t see anybody smiling and having a good time. We all know, when you’re losing baseball games it’s not that fun. But I feel like we have to find a way to put everything in perspective. We’re still in first place. We’re still two games ahead of the Padres. We should be able to have some fun while we’re playing the game, and kind of relax a little bit more. Because I think when this team is together like that, we’re really hard to beat.”
As Rojas noted, the Dodgers are still in position to win their 12th National League West title in the last 13 seasons. They enter play Saturday with a two-game lead over the San Diego Padres, who are reeling from being swept by the Baltimore Orioles. The Padres also lost on Friday night, as they were shut out by the Colorado Rockies.
The Dodgers, however, currently do not have one of the top two records in the NL. If the NL standings remain that way, the Dodgers would have to play in the Wild Card Series rather than getting a bye into the NL Division Series.
Can Dodgers fix issues?
The Dodgers have just 21 games remaining, so time is running out to solve their troubles. Manager Dave Roberts believes their struggles stem from other matters such as a lack of focus, so it remains to be seen if that can be corrected.
Roberts has also implied some players on the team are relying on eventually flipping a switch to turn things around and get more locked in.
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