Dodgers News: Mark Walter Can’t Explain Losing, But Not Panicking
Not only are the Dodgers below .500 at home, they’re now 8-11 in one-run games. Injuries and inconsistency, perhaps with the two being correlated, has resulted in this season mirroring last year’s with one change being the San Francisco Giants and not the Arizona Diamondbacks jumping out ahead of the Dodgers in the NL West standings.
At the conclusion of a recent seven-game road trip that come to a disappointing end, manger Don Mattingly and Zack Greinke discussed the team’s play and Greinke addressed the expectations that have been placed on the Dodgers.
Mattingly has gone from calling the Dodgers out in a colorful manner to being content with their overall play. However, he also added the expansive renovations at Dodger Stadium may have a role in the team’s subpar home record.
Controlling owner Mark Walter was the latest to discuss the Dodgers’ play and though he doesn’t want every season to follow 2013’s path, he also uses it as a point of reference to shine some optimism on this year’s record, via Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times:
Look at where we were last year at this time,” Walter said. “We were much, much worse. I’m not saying that’s how I want the years to go, but we’re above .500.”
As for the notion the Giants are a more formidable opponent to be chasing when compared to the Diamondbacks, Walter believes the natural ebb and flow of baseball can have an impact:
But they might have a cold streak, too. Baseball does seem to have streaks. We get on a hot streak, they get on a cold streak, and now we might be talking about a race.”
The Giants appear to be in one of the cold streaks Walter mentioned, as they’ve lost four of their last five games after rattling off five consecutive wins as part of an 12-3 stretch. As a result, the Dodgers are now 7.5 games behind them in the standings.
While the Giants may have cooled off for the moment, the Dodgers will need to improve and find consistency if they hope to continue closing the distance between them and their bitter rival.
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