After Thursday night’s painful 4-1 loss in the nation’s capital to give the Washington Nationals their first playoff berth since 1933, Dodgers manager Don Mattingly finally came clean. He was asked by reporters if he felt that the Dodgers playoff hopes were slipping away. “Honestly, it does. It feels like it is a little bit,” Mattingly said. “I just don’t think there’s anyway for us to look at it other than that. We’re going in the wrong direction.”

“We’re going in the wrong direction.” – Don Mattingly (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Now this certainly isn’t to suggest that Mattingly hasn’t been forthcoming with the media in the past. In fact, he is usually upfront and honest almost to a fault, certainly far more than his predecessor and mentor Joe Torre ever was. But he has also done exactly what every good manager is supposed to do – he has refrained from acknowledging exactly how dire the situation really is and continued to minimize his team’s struggles… until now, that is; this in spite of the fact that the rest of the world has come to grips with the fact that the Dodgers chances of making it to the post season is hanging by a thread.

One might think that such a brutally honest acknowledgement from their manager might send the Dodgers clubhouse deeper into turmoil than it already is, but it seems that exactly the opposite has happened. The Dodgers took the field on Friday evening at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark with what seemed like renewed vigor and with a little swagger in their step, something that has been pretty much nonexistent since the All-Star break. Granted, they didn’t exactly go out and pound that tar out of the NL Central first place Reds. In fact, they won by a meager score of 3-1, evidence that their offensive woes are continuing. But they played (and pitched) exceptionally well, with an aggressiveness that Dodger fans haven’t witnessed in quite some time.

Matt Kemp’s clutch 2 RBI single in the top of the 10th inning was the game-winner for the Dodgers on Friday night. Kemp went 3 for 5 (all singles) for his second multi-hit game in three nights. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Could it be that Mattingly’s honest acknowledgement that his team pretty much… well… sucks be the panic button that needed to be pushed to finally light a fire under the Dodgers collective butts? I guess we’ll know the answer to that question this weekend during the final two games against Reds – a team that is already is guaranteed a spot in the post season.

Dodgers set-up man Ronald Belisario was flat out dominating on Friday night striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced – all swinging. Belisario collected the win and is now 8-1 with an ERA of 2.20 in 61 appearances this season. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

It would be redundant for me to say that every one of the Dodgers remaining 11 games is a must-win game, but this is the cold hard truth, and Mattingly knows it. ‘‘For us at this point, we’re going to have to put a run together that’s going to be more than just win a series.’’

No gray area here.

This is an exceptionally tall order for a team whose longest winning streak this season has only been six games, something that the Dodgers accomplished twice. Unfortunately both of those modest winning streaks occurred in April and May respectively, back when the Dodgers were the proud and surprising owners of the best record in all of baseball – a long ago and very distant memory at this point of the season.

Can it happen? Absolutely.

Will it happen? Well……