It’s a given that every true, die-hard Dodger fan checks the NL West standings religiously. Unfortunately, in doing so, we are all aware that the reign of good fortune that the Dodgers enjoyed over the first six weeks of the season where a .500-ish record has been good enough to remain at or near first place in the division has finally ended – as we all knew it would.

After a series of losing streaks, the Giants have finally strung together a (current) seven-game winning streak that now has them 2.5 games ahead of the Dodgers and Rockies. This time, however, the Dodgers have been unable to keep pace and in looking at their team statistics, it doesn’t appear that it’s going to get any better anytime soon.

As of Thursday morning the Dodgers have exactly one player hitting above .300, and his bat is only in the Dodgers lineup every five days – Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood, who is currently 4 for 13 (.308). Other than Wood, who obviously cannot be included in the team’s actual offensive statistics, the Dodgers have no one hitting above .300 – zero, zip, zilch, nada.

The good news is that “the roommates” – Messrs. Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Trayce Thompson – have been on a home run terror of late. The bad news is that the rest of the team is still mired in a horrible slump. In fact, even including the trio’s numbers, the Dodgers as a team are hitting a rather weak .244 – which is ranked ninth in the National League and 19th in the MLB. To make matters even worse, they are hitting a collective .242 with runners in scoring position and are leaving an average of 6.98 runners on base per game.

In his last seven games, Dodgers outfielder Trayce Thompson is 7 for 19 (.368) with four home runs and eight RBIs. He is currently the team’s best hitter among all position players at .294.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

As expected and as he should do, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has kept a positive perspective of his team’s offensive struggles by repeatedly assuring the media “we’re going to hit.” The problem with this optimistic, company-line response is that with 41 games in the books, the 2016 season is officially one-quarter finished (25.3 percent to be precise). And as former MLB manager and longtime Dodger employee and current baseball analyst Kevin Kennedy has long professed, you have a pretty good idea of your team’s strengths and shortcomings around the 40-game mark.

In many cases a team that is struggling offensively can get by if they have a strong starting rotation and a strong bullpen. And although the Dodgers starters are a combined 14-13 on the season with a respectable 3.41 ERA (4th best in the MLB), their bullpen is 7-7 with a less impressive 3.94 ERA (19th in the MLB).

Although there is still plenty of time for the Dodgers to get on the stick (literally), they might want to start doing so relatively soon because you can be absolutely positively assured that the Giants, Rockies, Diamondbacks and Padres aren’t about to wait for it to happen.

Either the Dodgers need to get their sticks together – and soon – or they’re going to need some new bats from Oklahoma City or perhaps even Tulsa.