Wake up, boys.
The Dodgers sleepwalked into the All-Star break, their final game before the four-day reprieve a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday that sealed a humiliating series sweep at the hands of a mediocre division rival.
The losses themselves weren’t the problem. This is baseball. That happens, even against inferior opposition. And it’s not as if the Dodgers didn’t have games to spare, their lead in the National League West over the second-place Diamondbacks still at 11 ½ games.
The problem was how the Dodgers dropped these games. They were unfocused in their at-bats. They were careless on defense. They handed the visitors opportunities as if they were promotional bobblehead dolls.
“End of the day, we gave away too many bases, we didn’t play good defense, and situationally we weren’t good offensively,” manager Dave Roberts said. “You do that and you lose three.”
The Dodgers’ major-league-leading 61 wins were a testament to the team’s ability to avoid performances like this. The sudden disappearance of this defining characteristic explained Roberts’ concern gradually increased over the last several days.
The team won two of three games against the last-place Colorado Rockies earlier in the week, but that’s where problems started to surface, with its previously-solid defense unraveling. A new opponent didn’t make a difference. If anything, the Dodgers played even worse against the Diamondbacks.
They committed nine errors in their last five games leading up to All-Star break, including two on Sunday. They gave up eight unearned runs in that period.
The defensive lapses were magnified by the number of free passes gifted by their pitchers. The Dodgers walked 14 batters in their three games against the Diamondbacks. They threw two wild pitches and were called for a balk in the series opener. They hit a batter the next day.
To be fair, it didn’t help that Shohei Ohtani was scratched from his start on Friday because of an irritated left knee. The Dodgers resorted to a bullpen game, their use of seven relievers that night affecting how Roberts managed the remainder of the series.
However, even Yoshinobu Yamamoto was susceptible to giving up an untimely base on balls, a decisive five-run sixth inning by the Diamondbacks in a 9-2 win on Saturday night starting with a four-pitch walk.
With his team swept for the first time this season, Roberts was noticeably deflated, calling the recent stretch of games the most disappointing of the season.
“Something that we’ve been really good at is not giving away games because of our defense,” Roberts said. “This last week has just been below average for sure.”
He acknowledged the All-Star break was coming at the right time for the Dodgers.
“Gives guys a reset,” Roberts said. “We got some good teams coming up and we gotta play good baseball.”
The Dodgers return from the All-Star break with a nine-game trip to the East Coast. They resume play on Friday for the start of a three-game series against the Yankees, which will be followed by visits to the Phillies and Mets.
In the remaining 2 ½ months of the season, the Dodgers will have to overcome an opponent they failed to conquer this past week: Complacency.
In the Diamondbacks, they faced a team on the periphery of the wild-card race – or, in Roberts’ words, “fighting for their lives.”
“They wanted it more,” Roberts said. “That’s just the truth.”
Roberts can take solace in how the last week was an anomaly for his team. The Dodgers have maintained a consistent level of focus, which is why they have been minimally affected by the multitude of setbacks they have encountered this season.
Ohtani had a slow start offensively and now has a swollen left knee that troubles him when he pitches. Two other All-Star-caliber starting pitchers, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, are sidelined.
The Dodgers are also missing their All-Star closer, Edwin Diaz, and All-Star catcher, Will Smith.
Mookie Betts was injured early in the season, and took several weeks to find his rhythm on offense. Kyle Tucker, the team’s $240-million offseason addition, remains in search of his swing.
Through it all, the Dodgers continued to pile up victories.
They were able to do that by playing solid defense, by taking purposeful at-bats, by pitching efficiently. They didn’t do what they did this week.
“The record withstanding, it’s how we expect to play,” Roberts said. “It just hasn’t been good. Hopefully, the break allows us to get away and come back fresh.”
