The good news is that the Dodgers have not lost four games in a row this season and we’re more that 25% of the way through it.

The bad news is that the Dodgers have not won four games in a row this season either, and if they have any hopes of making it to the post season they better start stringing together more than two or three consecutive wins.

What has hurt the Dodgers the most is their inability to win at home this season – a surefire recipe for disaster. And though they are 16-10 (.615) on the road, they are a dismal 9-13 (.409) in front of the locals. Now granted, if they can maintain a winning percentage of over .600 on the road they might be able to get away with a less-than-stellar winning percentage at home, but it absolutely must to be above .500.

Another thing that is hurting the Dodgers is that they are not beating the teams that they should be beating, such as the Dbacks (of late) and the Mets. And while the Dodgers just took two of three from the Mets, they had the wherewithal to sweep them but for yet another bullpen failure in Thursday nights disappointing 5-3 loss; a game that they should have won.

Although Dodgers co-ace Zack Greinke wasn’t as sharp as he normally is, he certainly pitched well enough to win on Thursday night were it not for two costly errors by his defense and yet another bullpen failure.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

To be fair, the Dodgers pitching staff didn’t receive much help from their offense during the three-game series against the Mets at Citi Field. While the Dodgers collected an impressive 15 hits in the series opener on Tuesday night for a dominating 9-4 win, they mustered only five hits on both Wednesday and Thursday nights, winning the Wednesday game but losing the Thursday game. There is no easy way to say it, the offense is simply not meeting their potential and expectations.

To make matters worse, the Dodgers defense still isn’t on track. They added two more costly errors on Thursday night to give them 39 on the season – second most in the National League behind only Washington.

Not wishing any ill-will on anyone but the Dodgers caught a huge break as they roll into the City of Brotherly Love for a three-game weekend series against the Phillies. The Dodgers were initially scheduled to face left-hander Cliff Lee during the series but Lee went on the disabled list on Monday for what was reported as a grade 1/2 left elbow strain. Fortunately the hard-throwing Lee will not require surgery as so many other starting pitchers have needed this season. Lee will, however, be out anywhere from 10 days to two weeks minimum and quite possibly longer. Lee absolutely dominated the Dodgers last month at Dodger Stadium when he shut them out 7-0 and held them to only four hits.

If the Dodgers are going to mount a serious threat in the NL West they would be well advised to not wait too much longer to get started. The quickest way to do so is to put together several winning streaks of more than only three games – and they better start doing it now.