The Los Angeles Dodgers were swept for the first time all season long just before the All-Star break by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The Dodgers have looked like a shell of themselves over the last three games, seemingly suffering from a lack of focus with the All-Star break so close.
Also, LA is ahead in the division by more than 10 games, giving them a cushion to breathe and not push too hard.
On Sunday, the Dodgers took a 5-3 loss despite leading for most of the game, until two bad innings of errant pitching and defensive mistakes.
The Dodgers have definitely made the most of their lead, taking their foot off the gas to lose 23-8 combined against Arizona.
What has gone wrong for the Dodgers?
Just about everything that can go wrong has for the Dodgers during their last series of the first half of the season.
The Dodgers made multiple errors during the series, and the pitching was lackluster from both the bullpen and the rotation, while the offense failed to put together sustained stretches of offense.
Andy Pages made an error that he usually never makes on a fly ball, while Max Muncy has continued a stretch where he makes the wrong read defensively.
The team had three hits on Sunday and six on Saturday, with most of the runs coming from home runs rather than the sustained pressure the team usually applies.
Among other strengths, the Dodgers have been really good at moving on from bad games — the main reason for their lack of sweep up until now — but for the first time all year, they failed to get past a rough game or two.
Who played well for the Dodgers?
Shohei Ohtani, even with some knee discomfort lingering in the background, had a good series.
He hit two home runs, went four-for-11 from the plate, and looked good swinging the bat and making plate appearances.
Additionally, Emmet Sheehan had a good start, allowing just one earned run in a 5.1 innings-pitched start. He got seven strikeouts, allowed one walk, and allowed only three hits.
The Dodgers do not play a game until Friday, when they host the New York Yankees in a blockbuster series.
They will need this week to get things ironed out, reset, and get healthy for the big sprint in the second part of July.
4 Responses
Completely mailed it in. Pathetic effort. Outscored 23-8. By Arizona. At home??!! LAD led all of MLB with the fewest errors with 29 in their first 94 games (an average of 0.31 per game). Their clear indifference in this series also manifested with 6 errors in these 3 games or a 2 per game average. No one expects anyone to win every game, but at least don’t wear a patch that says, “We have a big lead and don’t care”. 14.5 game lead down to 11.5, but more importantly, they have now provided AZ all the confidence they need if they meet in the playoffs.
?????
Still a lot of questions going into the 2nd half.
The game isn’t easy, nobody goes 162-0, for a reason. Even the best teams have at least small slumps. Maybe the All Star game is coming at the right time. Not that teams haven’t blown bigger leads, but with an 11.5 game lead they’re in pretty good shape.