Dodgers Position Players Held Meetings Amid Offensive Struggles

“This has been two months,” manager Dave Roberts told reporters ahead of Sunday's 6-1 win over the Detroit Tigers. “Honestly, I think every night is different. Whether it’s not having a good two-strike approach, not hitting with runners in scoring position, situationally, getting a lead-off guy on, controlling the strike zone."

According to Roberts, the Dodgers position players have had internal meetings to address their offensive struggles. With the beginning of the postseason under a month away, there is a sense of urgency among a Dodgers roster in search of a third consecutive World Series title.

“As an offense, we’ve got to get it going,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “We know it’s crunch time, and hopefully we can get hot here going into playoffs.

“We know who we are as a team. We have a great offensive group, and that’s what the back of our baseball cards say. But we need to start playing better and hitting better because we are facing 1s and 2s every single day in the playoffs. So it’d be nice to string together some offensive outbursts so we can feel confident going in.”

The Dodgers' internal discussions were held on more of a casual basis rather than an organized all-hands-on deck players-only meeting. With stars such as Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker and Hernández slumping, the Dodgers are attempting to go back to what has made them great in the past: their consistent and often explosive offensive production.

“Just like we get together two, three guys and then two, three more guys talk about the same thing, reflecting on the game the day before, or the past games like months ago in the moment that we were doing a really good job on the field, " Hernández said. "Just able to go back and think about what we were doing in those moments."

With 25 games left in the regular season, the Dodgers must reclaim their offensive fireworks if they are to successfully acquire a coveted top-two spot in the National League — which would exempt them from having to play in the volatile wild-card series in the opening round.

“I’m just trying to figure out solutions,” Roberts said. “We’re all frustrated. We know we should be better. But again, now it’s more of, ‘What are we gonna do about it?’”

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