It’s too early, the Dodgers say, to sound any alarm bells. Their lineup is too talented, they believe, for the narrative not to eventually turn.
But right now, the team’s biggest problem is not difficult to diagnose.
Their $400-million roster is not hitting, plain and simple.
And in a 4-2 defeat to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday, it cost them a third straight series loss in the wake of their roaring 8-0 start to the season.
“I’m not overly concerned right now, given where we’re at on the calendar,” manager Dave Roberts said, reflecting the frustrated — but not panicked — mood of his team.
“I think we just haven’t gotten synced up offensively,” he added. “It’s gonna happen. It’s just in this last nine-, 10-game stretch, it just hasn’t.”
During the Dodgers’ unbeaten barrage to begin this year’s World Series title defense, their star-studded lineup was performing as expected — even if the team felt then it wasn’t quite clicking on all cylinders.
Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts set the tone at the top. Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman and Will Smith cashed in with runners on base. And despite struggles from the bottom of the batting order,, the Dodgers were still averaging more than 5 ½ runs per game, hardly seeming to notice Freddie Freeman’s early absence.
Over the last nine games, however, the offense has come to a screeching halt; averaging barely three runs per contest during their current 3-6 rut.
Ohtani and Betts have been solid, but far from superhuman. Everyone else is trudging along, if not toiling through a flat-out slump.
“I just feel like we have more guys scuffling than guys that are feeling really good at the plate,” said Kiké Hernández, one of five regulars in the Dodgers’ lineup batting .225 or worse.
“It’s a matter of time. We’re going to snap out of it and we’re just going to start steamrolling people. We’re just going through a little bit of a rough patch.”
In Roberts’ view, the root of such scuffles has been a lack of quality “team at-bats,” with the manager bemoaning his hitters’ tendency to chase pitches out of the zone and make life easy on opposing pitchers.
“Our DNA as an offense, we do a really good job of beating the starter and getting the pitch count up and getting to the ‘pen,” Roberts said. “It’s not like guys are not trying to hit the ball hard. But I do think that if you look at the last 10 days, there hasn’t been a lot of loud contact. Just kind of building innings, creating stress, we just haven’t done that.”
That sobering reality became all the more apparent Sunday, when the Dodgers (11-6) did little against Cubs starting pitcher Colin Rea; a swingman from the bullpen with a career 4.52 ERA.
Rea gave the Dodgers plenty of good pitches to hit early in the “Sunday Night Baseball” showdown. Roughly a dozen times, Rea offered up mid-90s mph fastball near the heart of the plate.
Cubs pitcher Ryan Pressly reacts after Shohei Ohtani grounds out to end the game.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
But of the 16 total heaters the Dodgers swung at against Rea, — a lanky 6-foot-5 right-hander with a deceptively low release point — they whiffed six times, put only three in play and recorded just one hit on a Michael Conforto single in the second.
Conforto eventually came around to score on a Hernández single, giving the Dodgers an early 1-0 lead. But, on a day they were once again without Freeman (who got a scheduled day off after his return from the injured list at the start of the weekend), it didn’t do much to kick-start the offense.
“Each guy is trying to find their individual swing,” Roberts said. “When you get guys that are kind of searching, they’re looking more anxious than I think typically we are.”
On the mound, Tyler Glasnow bounced back from last week’s frustrating outing in Philadelphia, when he imploded during a third-inning rain shower for a disastrous five-run meltdown.
“He was frustrated at himself, rightfully so,” Roberts said pregame, having sought out Glasnow this week to ensure he’d flushed any lingering disappointment. “He’s coming into today with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder.”
Over a strong six-inning, two-run start, Glasnow just did that, striking out seven batters, walking only one and surrendering just three hits despite feeling off with his mechanics.
“Generally, when I feel like that, it usually ends a lot worse,” Glasnow said, noting his inability to locate pitches precisely how he wanted. “So glad I could just get through it.”
The only problem: Two of the hits Glasnow yielded left the yard.
Outfielder Kyle Tucker and second baseman Nico Hoerner can’t come up with this single by Mookie Betts.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Pete Crow-Armstrong blasted a tying solo home run off the right-field foul pole in the third. Ex-Dodgers prospect Michael Busch ended a nine-pitch at-bat in the sixth with a solo shot to the bullpen.
That gave Busch six hits in his Chavez Ravine homecoming this weekend, and the Cubs their first lead of the day at 2-1.
The Dodgers did get Glasnow off the hook for the loss in the bottom of the sixth. Conforto singled again to lead off the inning. Smith doubled down the line to set up Max Muncy for a tying sacrifice fly.
But the Dodgers — as has so often been the case over the last couple of weeks — failed to tack on.
That allowed the Cubs (11-7) to retake the lead with more long ball in the top of the seventh, with Crow-Armstrong launching on a hanging cutter from Blake Treinen to center for his second home run of the day.
The Dodgers then gift-wrapped an insurance run to the Cubs in the eighth, giving up another score after Conforto missed a fly ball near the left-field line for a leadoff double.
Given the way the Dodgers have swung the bats lately, however, Chicago didn’t need it. Over their final three trips to the plate, the Dodgers’ only baserunner came via a stranded seventh-inning walk from Betts.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve sucked for two weeks,” Betts said. “It just happens that it’s right now. If we panic, things get worse. If you don’t panic, it looks like we don’t care.”
Panic is certainly not what the Dodgers felt after the game, with Roberts and his players framing the last couple weeks as a temporary blip.
Sure, three straight series losses (something that only happened once last season, also in April) might have come as a surprise. Their .218 team batting average in that stretch certainly wasn’t expected, either.
But on the whole, an 11-6 record is one Roberts said he happily “would have banked” if offered back before opening day.
And while it “stings” to have come after an 8-0 start, he conceded, there’s virtually no scenario in which he sees the offense scuffling long-term.
“I know we’re going to hit. I know we’re going to score runs, things like that,” Roberts said. “We’ve just got to get back to who we are.”