Freddie Freeman: Dodgers’ Success Stems On Slumping Hitters ‘To Get Going’

The Los Angeles Dodgers have one of the best offenses in baseball, but they’ve also been in an extended slump as a group that has cost them a significant lead in the division race.

Overall this year, the Dodgers have the third most runs in MLB and the second-highest team on-base plus slugging. But since the start of June, the Dodgers rank 18th in runs scored and 19th in OPs.

Since the start of July, the Dodger have the 28th OPS among MLB’s 30 clubs, and it’s resulted in the third-fewest runs in that stretch as one of three teams yet to reach 100 runs scored since then.

Despite the offensive issues, the Dodgers remained mostly quiet at the trade deadline, adding only Alex Call — a quality fourth outfielder — to their group of position players.

Mookie Betts, Teoscar Hernández, Andy Pages, Tommy Edman and Freddie Freeman have all struggled over that stretch, although Freeman seems to be breaking out of it. The front office is making a bet on the talent level the group has to turn things around, which would be better than any acquisition they could have made.

“I think five or six months ago in Spring Training, we were talking about how great of a team we have,” Freeman said. “We still have that great of a team. Obviously some of us haven’t played as well, so it’s on us to get going. A few of us are getting going right now, and I think we’re going to be just fine going forward.”

Now that the trade deadline is behind them, the Dodgers roster is mostly set. They’ll add some players back from the injured list, and they’ll have some decisions to make on their roster.

But the majority of the team the Dodgers will take into October is clear, and they’re relying on their superstars to be superstars. But in the meantime, there’s one thing Freeman hopes for as they close out the final two months of the year.

“Everyone stay healthy,” Freeman said. “That’s our key. We know we have a really good team, so if we can just stay on the field, we’ll be just fine going into October.”

The Dodgers have seen it first hand in previous seasons how little regular season success correlates to October success. They’ve had years when they’ve ran through the regular season only to be swept in the National League Division Series, and last season the regular season was a struggle, only to end up winning the World Series title.

As long as the Dodgers play their best baseball in October and remain healthy, they’re going to be a tough team to beat.

Freddie Freeman wants offense to help Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Yoshinobu Yamamoto has looked the part of an ace in MLB, but the Dodgers have struggled to give him run support in most of his outings. The right-hander has gone 10-7 as a result of the poor offense, and Freeman hopes they can help him out more.

“Yoshi has been great,” Freeman said. “I’m sure he wanted to get the one more out to get six innings. He wants to go as deep as he possibly can.

“He’s been doing it all year. Ever since he came back from his shoulder injury last year, he’s looked like the guy we thought we were getting. It’s huge for us to go every five or six days and have that, and Blake Snell is back, Tyler Glasnow, Shohei, Kersh, Emmet Sheehan.

“What we envisioned a few months ago is starting to come around. Now it’s on our offense to come up with them.”