RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called out his struggling club after a 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday cost them a significant tiebreaker in the race for home-field advantage.
“I say this because it's just been four or five, six weeks of below average production in our offense. It's just the truth, and I think we have just haven't played clean baseball for quite some time, and that speaks to the defense,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers lost three of four in the key series against the Brewers, who are three games ahead of Los Angeles in the chase for the National League's best record and hold the head-to-head advantage for postseason seeding if the teams end up in a two-way deadlock.
Los Angeles is 5-11 in its past 16 games, having been swept by the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs and losing series to the Arizona Diamondbacks and Brewers in that span. Since July 1, the back-to-back World Series champions are 18-21.
Their issues putting together effective at-bats were evident in the final two games against the Brewers, totaling three runs on 11 hits and three walks.
“It's been a long time since we've been consistent offensively,” Roberts said. “For me, it's winning a 2-1 pitch and not chasing. Winning a 3-2 pitch, taking the walk. Not chasing the first pitch to then be 0-1. I see our guys, we're chasing off in, chasing away, and I just don't see the consistent plan of attack, 1 through 9.”
Even Shohei Ohtani, the centerpiece of the Dodgers' big spending and bigger winning, was not immune. He grounded into an inning-ending double play with runners on first and third in the seventh.
“I think that urgency of every single pitch is important. I don't think we have that intent, and some guys are scuffling at that with their swings and things like that, which is real. But I think other guys are not valuing every single pitch,” Roberts said.
Compounding those stumbles have been frequent defensive breakdowns. Second baseman Tommy Edman had two errors in the series finale, resulting in three runs. The first came when he did not cleanly handle Mookie Betts' throw for a force that would have ended the inning with the bases loaded in the second, allowing the Brewers to score their opening run.
The other came in the ninth inning, when Edman could not field a grounder to turn a possible double play, extending their deficit to 6-1 and further reducing the Dodgers' long odds of staging a comeback.
Roberts trusts his group can get back on track, but only by putting in the hard work necessary to get through this extended funk.
“I don't think that's who we are. I think we've done it long enough, individually, collectively. But I do think that just saying you're going to come out of it isn't the right way to look at it. I think coming out of it is by how you go about it,” Roberts said.
The Dodgers have time to work things out, holding a seven-game lead over the San Diego Padres in the NL West, and jockeying with the Brewers and Atlanta Braves for the two spots that avoid playing in the wild-card rounds.
Roberts just hopes this weekend's results do not end up having implications in the playoffs.
“I really wanted to win this game because it could matter, but we didn't,” he said. “So now we got to move forward, but I hope it doesn't come back to bite us.”
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