Pitchers break.
It’s a general rule of baseball. Teams can never have enough pitching depth. The Dodgers are experiencing an epidemic of injured pitchers and it has led to a stretch of bad losses. The Dodgers are 2-5 on their current road trip, and have lost six of their last eight games.
The Dodgers bullpen is partially to blame.
It was most evident in Saturday’s extra-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Dodgers and Brewers were tied, 2-2, after nine innings. The Dodgers took the lead in the 10th inning. But Alex Vesia came out of the bullpen and surrendered the tying run in the bottom of the 10th.
The Dodgers took the lead again, scoring two runs in the top of the 11th inning. But Vesia went out to start the bottom of the 11th inning, loaded the bases and was pulled for Mitch White.
White promptly gave up three runs and the Brewers won the game on an RBI single by Travis Shaw.
The Dodgers bullpen blew it big time.
It doesn’t help that Joe Kelly, Corey Knebel, Brusdar Graterol, David Price and Tony Gonsolin are on the injured list. Starter Dustin May is the most recent Dodgers pitcher to land on the IL after injuring his pitching arm in the second inning of Saturday’s game against the Brewers.
Even though Kenley Jansen has not spent any time on the injured list, some of his outings have been painful to watch.
The Dodgers pitching staff is like having a first-generation iPod. Sure it works and plays songs that remind fans of better times. But it can be glitchy. Some songs don’t play. Some songs don’t sound the same way fans remember them. Some songs are past their prime and probably need to be retired.
It’s hard to update an iPod. It’s better to switch to Spotify and explore other options that are available.
Right now, the best options for the Dodgers are Vesia and White, the Milli Vanilli of relief pitchers. Too bad the Dodgers can’t blame it on the rain.
Another reason for the Dodgers woes is that they are not hitting. Not enough anyway.
Slumps end.
They are hard to explain and even harder to fix. All players go through them. All teams go through them.
It seems all the Dodgers are in a slump at the same time. That makes it harder to break out of. It’s contagious.
But it’s also probably something a healthy Cody Bellinger couldn’t fix.
The Dodgers looked like they broke out of their slump on Sunday. At least AJ Pollock and Matt Beaty showed some signs of life.
Pollock went 3-for-6 and drove in eight runs. Beaty was 4-for-6 and drove in seven runs. The Dodgers hit two grand slams, one by Pollock and the other by Beaty, and won 16-4 avoiding the sweep and snapping a three-game losing streak.
The one bright spot for the Dodgers through all this mess has been the starting pitching. Here are the Dodger starting pitching power rankings:
- Clayton Kershaw
- Julio Urias
- Trevor Bauer
- Walker Buehler
- Dustin May
The Dodgers start a three-game series in Chicago against the Cubs on Monday. They have a three-game weekend series against the Los Angeles Angels starting on Friday.
For the first time since opening day, the Dodgers are not in first place in the National League West standings. They are 17-12 and in second place, a half-game behind the San Francisco Giants.
This might be a good time to point out that the San Diego Padres are 16-13, in third place and 1.5 games out of first.
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