CINCINNATI – When the heavens opened Sunday afternoon at Great American Ball Park, they didn’t wash away the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ poor series. It simply extended a 4-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds that capped the three-game sweep.
It marked the Dodgers’ fifth straight loss, their longest losing streak since 2019. Things haven’t been going well lately.
“When you’re not hitting, it certainly looks lifeless,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I know it’s not because of the care and preparation. But the bottom line is that it’s all about results. And we are not going to receive them at this time.”
The Dodgers entered Sunday having completed the first third of their season. They have played at a 99-win pace despite treading water for the past two weeks. That’s what premium talent will buy you, even if it doesn’t provide the most encouraging daily product as we look ahead to October.
A very heavy and inconsistent lineup
The most challenging challenge in baseball may well be the first three batters Reds left-hander Brent Suter encountered as a starter on Sunday. Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani have combined to be the two best in the sport by a mile. Freddie Freeman has yet to match the highs of his first two seasons with the Dodgers, but he has produced close to his career OPS+ rate (138).
The reward for outplaying that trio, along with Will Smith, Max Muncy (currently on the injured list) and Teoscar Hernandez, who have been solid in the middle? Against the second worst bottom third in baseball. As Eric Stephen of True Blue LA recently noted, Dodgers hitters outside the top six have combined to hit just .194/.263/.297. That combined OPS of .560 would be the fifth-lowest mark for a qualified hitter, performing slightly worse than Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jared Triolo (.568).
That represents a problem that has plagued the Dodgers during their streaks of inconsistency. The Dodgers entered Sunday third in baseball with 4.98 runs per game, but they haven’t matched that production. They have averaged less than four runs per game during this two-week span by blowing scoring opportunities.
Freeman’s one-out double in the ninth inning snapped a streak of 22 consecutive scoreless at-bats with RISP.
“You never know what at-bat will open you up and hopefully that was one,” Freeman said.
Ohtani declined to speak to reporters Sunday through a club public relations official.
There is at least one symptom that stands out.
“I think it’s a lack of consistency in approach,” Roberts said. “In my opinion, we are trying to cover too many parts of the zone and we are missing the fastball. “I think that’s the crux of the matter.”
The fastball numbers continue, as the Dodgers aren’t crushing hitable fastballs like they have in previous years.
Dodgers success against fastballs
YEAR | licensed in letters | OBP | SLG | wOBA (range) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2024 | .267 | .359 | .427 | .348 (7th) |
2023 | .268 | .357 | .480 | .360 (t-3º) |
2022 | .280 | .364 | .494 | .371 (1st) |
2021 | .267 | .361 | .490 | .365 (t-2nd) |
“I don’t think we’re hitting the fastball very well right now,” Gavin Lux said of a figure that was repeated in hitters’ meetings this week. “If you look at all the advanced statistics, it’s no secret.”
That, Roberts said, has more to do with execution than game plans: “The execution part is harder. But having a plan and being consistent is easy. It is. It really is.”
Rotation emerges as a strength
Yoshinobu Yamamoto completed his work for the day before heavy storms arrived in Sunday’s sixth inning, causing a delay of just over an hour. Before that avalanche, Yamamoto allowed four runs in the third inning as the Reds staged a persistent comeback that included a walk and four singles. A couple of those hits came with two strikes and two outs.
“I really have to get through that inning holding them to zero,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda.
That inning marred what would have been another solid, if unspectacular, start for the 25-year-old right-hander, who has a 3.51 ERA in his first 11 major league starts.
His progression has, in many ways, mirrored that of the rotation. Strong, if not elite yet. Yamamoto is one of the main reasons the Dodgers have adopted a nearly six-man rotation, giving the starters extra rest as often as possible. When James Paxton starts Wednesday against the New York Mets, he will be just the third start in the Dodgers’ first 58 games that will have come on “regular” rest.
And the group has acted. Tyler Glasnow has had a couple of mediocre outings, but he has yet to miss a start and has had moments where he has looked like an absolute ace. Yamamoto has bounced back after a rough start, as has Walker Buehler in his return from a second Tommy John surgery. Paxton has outperformed his underlying numbers long enough for the Dodgers to extract the value from him that they hoped for this time of year. Gavin Stone has stood out in his role.
The Dodgers’ rotation entered Sunday with a 3.47 ERA that ranked eighth in baseball. Help is on the way in due time. Buehler is back. Clayton Kershaw and Dustin May have started throwing bullpens. And on Sunday, Bobby Miller began a rehab assignment with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga.
The bullpen is a revolving door
No baseball team has used more pitchers than the Dodgers. That, of course, is never ideal.
Now look at the projected bullpen in spring training and you’ll see why. Brusdar Graterol (shoulder) has not released this year. Blake Treinen (ribs) missed the first month. Kyle Hurt made some brilliant appearances before hitting the shelf with a shoulder problem. Ryan Brasier broke his calf during warmups. Evan Phillips injured his hamstring while playing catch. The Dodgers have 11 pitchers on the injured list, which has turned the last spots on the active and 40-man rosters into a carousel.
Nabil Crismatt and Dinelson Lamet have appeared and been designated for assignment twice (Crismatt has since signed with the Texas Rangers). They gave Eduardo Salazar a once over before he was designated for assignment. Elieser Hernández now has a spot in the Dodgers’ bullpen after not pitching in the majors a year ago. The same goes for Yohan Ramírez, who has been designated for loan three times by clubs in the first two months.
The turmoil has pushed a pair of veterans who have barely pitched in the last two years (Treinen and Daniel Hudson) into the bullpen’s most valuable spots.
However, the Dodgers owned the third-best bullpen ERA (3.30) in baseball through Sunday. This is a remarkable feat, even if some of the underlying numbers are not so encouraging. The signs of that potential regression were quite clear on Friday.
Ramirez, in particular, had a rough weekend, striking out four of the first eight batters he faced in this series before Roberts ran to the mound in the eighth inning.
Roberts didn’t want to burn out a reliever by the end of a miserable weekend. Then, he put his arms around Ramirez while he spoke in his ear for a long time. He then left Ramirez out there to close out the inning on the next pitch.
“I wanted to cut it off before it really turned,” Roberts said. “And I just tried to calm him down and give him some confidence, love him a little bit and try to take some pressure off him. … You have to try to do everything you can to show him that you care and give him some confidence.”
(Top photo of Dave Roberts and reliever Yohan Ramirez: Dylan Buell//Keynote USA/Getty Images)
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