In every professional sport there is often a fine line between winning and losing. Oh sure, there is the occasional blowout, which is great when it’s your team doing the blowing out, but not so great when it’s the other way around; and of course baseball is no exception. The line between winning and losing in baseball is frequently extremely fine – as fine as one run.

The 2012 season has been an unusual one for the Dodgers. Never in my many years as a fan do I recall the Dodgers ever having been involved in more one-run games as they have this season; nor do I recall a season in which the Dodgers have had so many opportunities to gain ground on their division rivals but failed to do so because of losing when their rivals lost or their rivals winning when they won. I imagine there have been seasons with more of both, but as I said, I don’t recall them off the top of my head.

Losing games when your division rivals also lose are missed opportunities that you never get back. (Photo credit – Jake Roth)

Through 113 games the Dodgers have been involved in 39 one-run games, which is tied for third most in the MLB with the Giants and Nationals. (The Brewers top the list with 43, followed by the Pirates with 42). Of these 39 one-run games, the Dodgers are 21-18. Although there are a number of factors involved in losing one-run games versus winning them, none is greater than leaving runners on base (LOB) and, more so, the inability to hit with runners in scoring position (RISP).

In their 18 one-run losses, the Dodgers left a total of 109 runners on base. To make matters worse, they went a collective 25 for 128 (.195) with RISP in these 18 games. To their credit (if you can call it that), the Dodgers Team LOB per game average is 6.86, which ranks 13th in the MLB and the fewest among the five NL West teams. The Diamondbacks are ranked 14th with 6.89 and the Rockies 15th with 6.90. (In the Rockies case, you can’t leave them on base if you don’t get them on base). Incidentally, the Giants are ranked 29th (out of the 30 MLB teams) with a 7.29 LOB per game average. This could prove to be very important in the stretch run.

To make matters even worse still (or at least confusing), the Dodgers are averaging 3.88 runs per game (26th fewest in the MLB), yet their runs allowed per game average is only 3.73 (3rd fewest in the MLB). When your pitchers are allowing fewer runs than your offense is scoring, you have a very serious power outage problem.

Now for the second part of the equation… the part that is absolutely mind-boggling. Since Opening Day 2012, the Dodgers have lost 22 games on the same days that the Giants also lost. Even if the Dodgers had won a quarter of these games, they would now have a 5.5 game lead over the Giants in the NL West instead of being tied with them as both teams enter play on Saturday. This is nuts! I don’t recall such a thing ever happening to the Dodgers before. To put this in perspective, the Dodgers have lost a total of 52 games so far this season (as of Friday night) and nearly half of them occurred on the same days that the Giants also lost – talk about missed opportunities. By the way, the Dodgers also won 35 games on the same days that the Giants also won.

Will things improve for the Dodgers? Lord only knows, but the opportunity is certainly there for the taking. With the recent acquisitions of Hanley Ramirez and Shane Victorino, there is no reason why the Dodgers’ offensive numbers shouldn’t improve – the LOBs should decrease while getting timely hits with RISP should increase – but this is not a given.

Even though the Dodgers left 8 men on base in Friday night’s 5-2 win over the Miami Marlins, they went 4 for 10 with RISP, two of which were by Hanley Ramirez. (Photo credit – J Pat Carter)

To be fair, it is rare to see an entire line-up go into an offensive slump at the same time, yet this is exactly what occurred to the Dodgers during the final two weeks of July and the first week of August; in fact, I don’t recall it ever happening before with guys like Matt Kemp, Andre Ethier, Hanley Ramirez and Shane Victorino in the line-up. The only saving grace is that the Giants have suffered the same fate during this same stretch and they have added only Hunter Pence to their relatively mild line-up. Fortunately, it now appears that the Dodgers’ Fab Four (five if you count Juan Rivera) are starting to heat up… and it couldn’t happen at a better time – when the Dodgers are on a very difficult 10-game road trip.

Rest assured that the NL West division stretch run is going to be an exciting one. You better get in, sit down, strap in, and hang on – it’s going to be a wild ride!