Why Dodgers are in serious trouble amid recent struggles

Certain players aren’t living up to expectations for the Los Angeles Dodgers. And their biggest star seems to be off his game because of injuries. It’s time for Dodgers fans to worry, and here is why they are in serious trouble amid recent struggles.

It’s not about winning the NL West. The Dodgers basically have that locked up with a nine-game lead and only 23 games remaining. And even if they can’t flag down the Brewers for the NL’s best record, they’re still the two-time defending World Champions.

And that’s part of the problem. The weight of making a historically relevant run to a third straight title may be weighing the team down.

Dodgers feeling the threepeat pressure?

August was a difficult journey. The Dodgers posted a record of 13-14. And since the beginning of July, they’ve been a .500 team. They don’t look like their dominant selves.

It’s a veteran group, and Kiké Hernández said the late-season swoon isn’t out of the ordinary, according to dodgerblue.com.

“If you really follow Dodger baseball the last three years, it’s almost like it’s a trend for the team to struggle around this time of the year,” Hernández said. “I mean, were they saying in ’24 that we were tired because we got swept the year before? I don’t think so.

“They might’ve been saying Korea, and then last year maybe Japan, but we won the World Series. Yeah, we’re an older group, but I just think it’s part of a season when you struggle. It just happens for us that we’re struggling in August and didn’t struggle in April.”

Hernández said many baseball teams struggle early. But the Dodgers seem to hit the hard part in the heart of the summer.

“For us, it’s weird timing that it always tends to happen around late July, early August,” Hernández said. “But we’re a group that has been together for so long and kind of seen it all, that in a sense, we’re more than battle-tested. A little grind, a little tough stretch is not going to make us doubt or panic in any sense.

“I think for us, it’s just a matter of figuring it out and tuning up certain things. I think the series we just had in Colorado was a pretty positive one.”

That’s the propaganda-ish viewpoint. But what is really going on?

It’s not the Dodgers’ pitching staff

With newly added Tarik Skubal at the forefront, the Dodgers can match ace versus ace with any team in baseball. Then they can trot Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow to the mound. No opponent wants to see that quartet digging around the mound in October.

And while the bullpen hasn’t been the best in baseball, the Dodgers still rank No. 9 in ERA. Plus, who knows if Edwin Diaz will regain his standard form by the postseason.

So the Dodgers know, or at least believe, their pitching is good enough to carry the team toward another title.

That’s especially true now that Skubal has the start against his former team, the Tigers, behind him, according to MLB.com.

“Obviously getting traded, I’m trying to throw myself into being an L.A. Dodger,” Skubal said. “Get to know this team and get to know this staff and get to know everything, get settled in with everybody here, and then go out and compete and try to win as many baseball games as I can here.”

The problem is the lineup.

Dodgers not getting what they need from hitters

If you look at Shohei Ohtani’s numbers for the season, it’s not bad at all. But he hasn’t been his dominant self. And the Dodgers were able to ride his extraordinary performances in the past.

Injuries have turned him into less than the game’s best player. Manager Dave Roberts sees it, according to The Athletic.

“Tonight was kind of the tip of the iceberg,” Roberts said of his star, whose every limp and wince has become a major talking point for the reigning back-to-back World Series champions. “I’ve seen it over the last couple weeks, where he hasn’t been who he is.

“I know he feels that he needs to post and be in the lineup. (That) if he’s upright, he should play. I respect that. But if he’s feeling the way that visibly looks, then really not helping anyone.”

The numbers speak to the story. Ohtani had a .795 OPS in August. That’s the lowest mark in any month of his first three seasons in a Dodgers uniform. And it was his worst since April of 2022.

And now he may face an IR stint, according to a post on X by Jack Harris.

“Dave Roberts described Shohei Ohtani’s status as “day to day” right now. He said an IL stint is still ‘unlikely’ but not impossible depending on how he feels the next couple days.”

It’s not all on Ohtani’s shoulders. Kyle Tucker hasn’t earned the big money the Dodgers gave him in free agency. Mookie Betts isn’t what he used to be. And Freddie Freeman isn’t the player he was a few years ago — or even last year.

But Freeman said he believes things will change, according to dodgerblue.com. He said he doesn’t think the team will struggle to break out of the slump.

“No, just kind of how it goes,” Freeman said. “That’s why you play 162 games. That’s why we got off to a great start to manage these stretches throughout the course of the season.

“So we still got a month left. Starting to score some runs now, so hopefully we can put it together the last 20-plus games.”