June 21st, 2012 at 11:27 am 
by Ron Cervenka What was that? Was that the sound of the Dodgers magic bubble finally bursting?
Face it, when the Dodgers broke spring training camp this past March, nobody, and I mean nobody gave them a chance to finish above third place in the NL West… nobody but the Dodgers themselves, that is. Quite frankly, to almost make it to the All-Star break with the best record in all of baseball is absolutely incredible, but it certainly wasn’t on anybody’s radar – probably not even their own. And to their credit, they almost made it… almost.
Losing this week’s series to the Oakland Athletics, one of the worst teams in baseball, at the exact same time that the hated Giants lost their series to the Angels will, in my opinion, loom big and could come back to haunt the Dodgers come September. It may even prove to be the series that keeps them out of the playoffs. This, of course, remains to be seen, but why do I have this gnawing feeling in my stomach that it will?
Brandon McCarthy, Tommy Milone, and Travis Blackley completely dominated the weak hitting Dodgers.
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that A’s starters Brandon McCarthy, Tommy Milone (who went to high school with my daughter), and Travis Blackley flat out kicked the Dodgers’ butts – they absolutely did. They (and their bullpen) limited the Dodgers to only two runs (one of those a gift) and only eight hits in 27 innings. Aside from those two runs, the Dodgers never had a runner make it to third base. Does this sound like the team with the best record in baseball? It sounds more like the team that got no-hit two weeks ago by an even worse Seattle Mariners team.
If you are looking for a silver lining to this mess there actually is one – the Dodgers no longer have the best record in baseball; that honor now belongs to the team that everyone expected to have the best record in baseball – the Texas Rangers, who are now 43-27, so the Dodgers no longer have to bear that pressure. The other part of this silver lining thing is that the Dodgers do still have the best record in the NL at 42-28; that’s the good news. The bad news is that in the 17 games leading up to the All-Star break, they face the smoking hot Angels for three games in Anaheim, the hated Giants in San Francisco for three games (this will be a HUGE series), the streaking Mets (thankfully at Dodger Stadium) for four games, the NL Central leading Reds (also at the Ravine) for three games, and then the division rival D-Backs for four games at Chase Field. I guess what I am saying is that the next two and a half weeks could very well prove to be the defining moment in the Dodgers 2012 season – and it will all happen without having the services of their best player Matt Kemp.
During Kemp’s continuing absence over the next 17 games (and probably longer), the Dodgers absolutely positively need James Loney, A.J. Ellis, and both Juans (Rivera and Uribe) to start hitting and hitting with power. They also absolutely positively need Andre Ethier to get out of his current offensive funk – and fast. If they do not, that best record in the NL or even in the NL West could fall by the wayside.
Can the Dodgers keep their magic bubble intact? Absolutely. Will they? I wish I felt a little more confident about that one. That said, I will remain the guarded optimist, as my good friend Mark Langill would say.
GO DODGERS!
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Oy Vey! I had to update this post – things went from bad to worse.
Hey Gary – Grab your bat and get on over to the Big-A… the Dodgers need a hitter!
How did they get worse…
One thing that absolutely needs to happen is Dee Gordon getting on base at a higher percentage. He has been a huge disappointment this year for me…earlier it seemed he would be on base all the time putting pressure on pitchers, but he and Uribe are almost another pitcher’s spot in the line up.
I had already posted the article fully expecting the Dodgers to win game three of the series behind Kershaw… but they lost! I had to edit the piece (including adding Blackley to the photo) and change the stat line to two runs instead of one (WooHoo) and eight hits instead of five (WooHoo) in 27 innings instead of 18 (not WooHoo).
THAT’S how it went from bad to worse.
I was worried someone else got injured
Quick note – good analysis and my fingers are crossed that this little stretch be a “blip” in the year and the remainder goes back to leading the Majors.
What is interesting, Linda, is that I actually expected a few more comments on this one. The article wasn’t written with any intention of a negative slant, it was written to point out that the Dodgers’ offense has completely shut down at the worst possible time (when their rivals were also losing). Although this didn’t result in a net change in the standings, these are missed opportunities that they will never get back and could mean the difference in making it to the post-season or not.
Having administered a forum for quite some time (and more recently a blog site), I have always found it interesting that some folks also tend to shut down (i.e. – avoid posting or commenting) when things aren’t going well for the Dodgers. Of course we all want the Dodgers to do well and stay on top, but the reality is that it doesn’t always work out that way. As Mark Langill recently pointed out during his interview, there are highs and there are lows, but in the end, the better teams make it to the playoffs. We all want the Dodgers to be there at the end of the season, but to get there, they need to have more highs than lows (or more frequent and longer winning streaks than losing streaks, as we recently hashed out over on the forum).
This post isn’t a knock on the Dodgers, it is a wake-up call. It merely points out that things need to change offensively (and fast) or that thin 4-game lead over the Giants will be gone in no time due to the very difficult schedule in the 2 1/2 weeks.