Tuesday night brought another rough loss for the Los Angeles Dodgers—one of a whopping 43 they've already suffered so far this year. Facing the Minnesota Twins at home, the defending champions got absolutely blown out of the ballpark in a three-run loss. Surely no team has ever faced adversity like this.
On Teoscar Hernández's bobblehead night (he was benched), the score was even at 3-3 through five, with starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto getting tagged for a couple of unearned runs in a tricky second inning. Once he exited, however, L.A. completely lost the plot. Ben Casparius, the first reliever out of the pen, looked hurt as he failed to get any of his four batters out, and he'll get an MRI. Alexis Díaz was unable to strand two of the runners he inherited. And after Will Klein walked three straight in the seventh, Edgardo Henriquez entered the game and generously turned a Royce Lewis check-swing chopper into a three-bagger with a wild throw into the right-field corner.
A late Ohtani dinger was nice to see, but it didn't stave off the postgame depression as the Dodgers wallowed in a 10-7 loss that left their manager desperate for a turnaround.
"It better be rock bottom," Dave Roberts said afterward, "as far as how we've been pitching, how we've been playing defense."
Rock bottom for the Dodgers is an ugly sight: a mere 3.5-game lead over the Padres for first place in the NL West, a one-game losing streak, and injuries galore. These Dodgers are so banged up that they've been forced to rely on guys like Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto to squeeze out victories.
Of course I'm joking, just a bit. The Dodgers do need some better arms beyond just the newly healthy Tyler Glasnow, as Yamamoto and Alex Vesia are really the only guys anywhere who've dependably provided more than negligible value throughout the season. It's a need they will certainly try to address in this last week before the trade deadline, and a move could allow the team to regain some optimism that's been lost in a July where they've gone just 6-11.
But still, even with their recent woes, it's funny for the Dodgers, of all teams, to be indulging any kind of meltdown. They're close to a sure thing for the playoffs. They boast an overwhelming number of superstars. They bring a track record of success and a willingness to pay for more. And only two teams in the NL, the Cubs and the Brewers, have better records. I mean, it's not like they're weathering the kind of disaster that's befallen the Detroit Tigers, who've played so poorly of late that they're only nine games up on Cleveland in the AL Central.
This post–all star lull ahead of the true playoff race is good for nothing but mid-summer freakouts. Even if you root for a division leader, it can drive you crazy knowing that your team can't win a championship right now, but they sure as heck can lose their shot at it. At least for a squad as talented and experienced as the Dodgers, it should turn around soon enough. Probably.
