After the Los Angeles Dodgers lost 3-1 to the Reds on Saturday in the middle of a surprising sweep of Cincinnati, manager Mookie Betts smiled at the notion that a star-studded team couldn’t be more vulnerable to the kind of losing streak the Dodgers are currently enduring.
“That’s what’s on paper,” Betts said. “It’s not what the games are. Games have to be played. You don’t know how the guys are feeling, you don’t know what’s going on. On paper it’ll say, yeah, we have the talent, but the game decides. We’re not done.”
Betts is right. On paper, the Dodgers shouldn’t be swept by the last-place Reds (23-30), who just won three of four games last week in Los Angeles. On paper, a lineup with three MVPs and a handful of seasoned hitters behind them shouldn’t have as much trouble scoring as the Dodgers have in recent weeks (3.09 runs allowed per game over their past 11 games, down from the 5.4 they allowed over their first 44 games of the season). On paper, a team this strong shouldn’t lose five games in a row (two to the Diamondbacks and three to the Reds). But the Dodgers have lost.
Five straight losses may not seem like much, but consider the fact that the Dodgers had never lost more than four games in a row since Betts was acquired prior to the 2020 season. The most recent losing streak of that length was when the Dodgers lost six straight in April 2019, but even that season Los Angeles won 106 games. In 2018, the Dodgers lost six straight in mid-May and fell to 16-26. 16-26!!! They went on to win 92 games, win the division again, and eventually win the National League pennant. 11 straight losses Mid-September The 2017 Dodgers dominated the National League West and nearly won it, but they just couldn’t stop.
Only a handful of players on those rosters remain on the 2024 team, but these examples all serve as a reminder of just how high the bar has been set by this organization over the past decade and, by extension, why the Dodgers shouldn’t bet on their ability to turn this around in the short term.
While many good teams across the league have slumped over the summer and paid the price, missing out on a chance to compete in October, the Dodgers’ unparalleled recent regular-season run is rooted in part in their ability to endure and weather rare tough times. In this era of Dodger baseball, a regular-season downturn, no matter how bad it may have looked at times, has never hindered their path to an eventual postseason berth.
While this context is important, it’s not to say the 2024 Dodgers don’t have their flaws. Even after a billion-dollar offseason in which an ultra-aggressive front office appeared to raise both the floor and ceiling of the roster, red flags remain regarding the weak bottom half of the lineup and shaky bullpen depth. The placement of closer Evan Phillips and third baseman Max Muncy on the disabled list earlier this month no doubt contributed to this ugly streak, forcing manager Dave Roberts to use a mix of less-than-stellar options in the later innings, and Muncy’s absence has made the dismal performance of the lower order even more problematic. It’s not that Gavin Lux (.542 OPS), rookies Andy Page (.652 OPS), Chris Taylor (.338 OPS), Enrique Hernandez (.555 OPS) or the recently demoted James Outman (.516 OPS) are expected to match the phenomenal performances of Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, but the pressure is on them not to play so badly that it negates the benefit of having a strong top three.
“I think that’s the nature of a top-heavy, star-studded senior team,” Roberts said Friday before the series in Cincinnati, “but I think the guys at the bottom, outside of Miguel Rojas, just aren’t good enough. That’s their fault, too. So I think it’s relative, but I think they know they should be better.”
You can no longer point to the calendar and shrug, saying, “It’s too early.”
“I think the guys have had enough at-bats and they need to start making adjustments,” Roberts said Friday.
Patience may also be wearing thin, after the bottom four in the lineup went hitless for 24 at-bats on Saturday and Sunday.
In the standings, though, the Dodgers remain firmly in first place in the National League West with a 33-22 record. Los Angeles struggled in Cincinnati, while the rival Giants missed a chance to sweep the Mets in Queens on Sunday, losing a two-run lead in the ninth inning. San Diego lost at home to the Yankees, and Arizona lost to the lowly Marlins. The Dodgers’ 5.5-game lead is the second-largest of any division leader in MLB, trailing only closely behind the surprisingly large lead Philadelphia has over Atlanta with nearly two months of play.
The Dodgers’ lead is helped by the fact that the teams chasing them have struggled to get going, but it also shows that the Dodgers have been good since the start of the season. Even in the midst of this slump, we’re still talking about a 60% team a little over a third of the way through the season. It would be different if the current team hadn’t yet played up to its massive potential, which it certainly isn’t. This team is living up to the hype, and as long as the core superstars at the plate and on defense stay healthy, it would be foolish to expect this slump to last much longer.
On June 7, the Dodgers will arrive in the Bronx for a much-anticipated showdown with the Yankees. If Los Angeles is back on track by then, this series could be one of the best this year, and talk of a “World Series preview” is almost inevitable. If they’re not and their division lead continues to shrink, tougher questions may need to be asked. But with Los Angeles’ next three opponents — the Mets, Rockies and Pirates — it looks likely they’ll be back on the road as a powerhouse in the coming weeks.
At least, that’s what the paper says.
