Repeat after me, Dodger fans: Slumps are a part of baseball. Take a deep breath, think good thoughts, and remember how the 2018 Dodgers were 10 games under .500 on May 16 and still got to the World Series.
For a while Saturday night’s game against the Angels seemed to be a starting point in escaping this skid. And then Clayton Kershaw left the game, minor leaguers were asked to do a major leaguer’s job, and at a certain point, before the Dodgers finally locked it down 14-11, it became permissible to hurl a pillow across the room in anger.
It’s OK for fans to be frustrated during a bad streak. The trick is for the players to resist that temptation, to keep an even keel and not try too hard or get too worked up, and to above all remember that this is a 162-game season, not 60. We don’t have to multiply everything by 2.7 anymore.
But it’s hard when the indignities continue to pile up, such as letting most of a 13-run lead get away. (See: Minor league pitchers.)
Perspective isn’t always easy when you’re struggling. The sight of Will Smith slamming his bat to the ground after popping up in the sixth inning Friday night in Anaheim, only to wind up with a double when Angels first baseman Jared Walsh couldn’t quite run it down in short right field, probably sums up what the Dodgers have been fighting.
“I’m not usually the guy that shows my emotions, but the last couple of weeks got to me a little bit right there,” Smith said after that game. “I was a little frustrated. That happens in baseball.”
It was understandable after Friday night’s 9-2 pasting by the Angels, which gave the Dodgers four straight losses, seven of eight and 10 of 12 and a 17-16 record after starting the season 13-2. They had 11 players on the injured list, including eight pitchers and what should be the centerpiece of their batting order, Cody Bellinger. They had another limp off Friday night, but A.J. Pollock – who came up lame after failing to come up with Mike Trout’s line drive – was diagnosed afterward with a Grade I hamstring strain.
Saturday night’s battering of Dylan Bundy and the Angel bullpen in the early innings eased for the moment the frustration of a 3-for-36 output with runners in scoring position during the previous four games, which seemed to coincide with a return to an all-or-nothing offensive approach. Then again, the game as a whole is dealing with a paucity of offense that has drawn comparisons to one of the worst hitting years in the last century, 1968. After that season the game’s deep thinkers reduced the strike zone and lowered the mound. If it stays this bad, doesn’t banning the shift have to at least come up for discussion?
Was this another sign of frustration, or at least trying too hard? Trailing 4-1 in the fifth inning Friday night, five Dodgers came up against Griffin Canning and all swung at the first pitch. Two got hits – a single by Gavin Lux and a ground-rule double by Mookie Betts – but with second and third and one out, Corey Seager and Justin Turner both grounded to third to end the threat.
“For us, if you see the ball in the strike zone, I think our mindset is to attack,” Manager Dave Roberts said. “I thought Corey hit the ball hard; it was just right at (Jose) Rojas (who was playing in). And JT, it’s hard to question his at-bat quality. He got a pitch he thought he could fire on and hit the top of the baseball.
“But again, that’s baseball. If our guys are in the strike zone, aggressive to strike, then I’ll take our chances.”
That was an explanation of one segment of one game, but there’s a larger point here. Remember that 2018 stretch, when the Dodgers had a World Series hangover without having tasted the champagne the previous October? They were 16-26 on May 16, got back to .500 by June 5 and were 10 games over by July 13, and one of the reasons players credited for helping them get through that stretch was Roberts’ relentless positivity. (Another was getting Justin Turner back after an injury that kept him out of the lineup for the first several weeks, so there’s another comparison to the current predicament.)
This stretch has to have tested Roberts’ patience, but it hasn’t eradicated it as far as we can tell.
“I think it’s under the category of, we just need to be better,” Roberts said after Friday night’s game. “I still know our players are very good and talented, but it’s about going up there and making productive outs, getting hits when you need to get them. We just need to get better. So I wouldn’t say (there’s) concern. I just think that it’s something that we understand that we need to get better at.”
Right now it sounds funny, maybe in a cruel sort of way, but the team most observers saw as the best in baseball two weeks into the season still has that capability.
Getting Bellinger back makes the lineup better just by adding one more threat and taking pressure off others. The returns of Brusdar Graterol, Scott Alexander, Tony Gonsolin and David Price from the IL should help both the rotation and bullpen and reduce the number of occasions when guys who should be in Triple-A are being asked to save games or get crucial outs (as we were reminded again Saturday). The loss of Dustin May hurts, a lot, but for the most part starting pitching hasn’t been the issue during this stretch.
“Guys are keeping their heads up,” Smith said. “We’re sticking to our process, and wins will come. This is too good a team to keep losing. We all know that. We’re all too confident a group to keep what we’ve been doing the last two weeks going.
“Things will turn around for us. We all know that.”
After all, it’s still early, until it isn’t.
jalexander@scng.com
@Jim_Alexander on Twitter
