The Los Angeles Dodgers are the most incredible team in all of baseball. Wait, hold up, that was last week. The MLB moves fast, and it’s a different world than we lived in just ten days ago. This week saw them tumble down the power rankings and barely hold on to the NL West at just over .500. What happened?
The Dodgers’ recent performance has been anything but smooth. At the 15-game mark, they saw themselves on top of the baseball world at 10-5 atop the MLB power rankings and turning in their ring sizes to upper management; now, they suddenly found themselves in a terrifying skid, losing seven out of their last ten games. This is unusual for the Dodgers, who went into the season confident of consistent dominance in the field. The team’s struggles have been particularly evident in their games against the New York Mets, where they could not capitalize on critical opportunities, leading to two disappointing losses.
A critical issue that plagued the Dodgers during this challenging period is their inability to deliver big hits when needed. The team has been consistently failing to score when the bases are loaded, striking out six times in such situations during one of their recent games against the Mets.
Max Muncy is 5 for 30 in his last ten games (.166); three of those hits did leave the yard, though. Mookie has only one long ball after it looked like he would run away with the NL MVP. Now, he seems to be trailing the Braves Marcell Ozuna. Then we get to Gavin Lux… let’s not; we all know how bad he is.
Shohei has been good, batting .422, and even broke Godzilla’s career HR mark at 176; hats off to Hideki Matsui. Even with Ohtani and Betts getting on base, the team is hitting a terrible .222 average over the losing streak, ranking 22nd in the MLB.
Hitting issue number one, but it is hard to hit when you are constantly striking out. This leads us to issue No. 2, Ks. Another area where the Dodgers have shown signs of struggle is their high strikeout rate. The team leads the National League with a whopping 226 strikeouts this season. The Boston Red Sox are the only other team to strike out more this season. This is an alarming statistic, as it shows the Dodgers’ hitters are struggling to make contact with the ball, leading to outs and missed scoring opportunities.
Maybe we are overreacting; they seemed to break the slump Sunday with a 10-0 vindication win after dropping two to the Mets. “I think it’s just a bad week, I really do,” Dave Roberts, Dodgers’ Manager, stated when asked about their recent fall from grace. Let’s hope so, but the Dodgers have a brutal stretch ahead.
They have nine straight on the road traveling to Washington, Canada, then to the back of the west coast for three against defending NL Champs Arizona, only to have to host the hottest team in baseball with the Atlanta Braves coming to Tinseltown. After this stretch, there is a very good chance the Dodgers are multiple games out of first place in the NL West.
