There is little doubt that there are many Dodgers fans on the verge of panic, with their team having lost five of their first seven games. To these unquestionably loyal Dodger fans, the best I can offer is … relax.

I mean, after Thursday’s much-needed and well-timed day off, the Dodgers have a grand total of 155 games remaining in the 2018 regular season; that’s one hundred and fifty-five. And by the look of things, there is an exceptionally good chance – 100 percent, in fact – that Friday’s game against the Hated Ones at AT&T Park in San Francisco will be rained out, and a 60 percent chance that Saturday’s game will be as well. And while no one likes seeing any baseball game rained out because of the inconvenience they cause in scheduling make-up games (usually in the form of  doubleheaders), a brief one, two, or even three-day break in the action could be just what the doctor ordered for the current offensively-challenged Dodgers.

After losing the first two games of the season to those same Giants at the hands of the best starting pitcher and best closer in the game today, the Dodger bats woke up for the next two games, producing a combined 14 runs on 17 hits to split the season-opening four-game series.

Unfortunately, those Dodger bats went right back to sleep in the just-concluded three-game series with the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field, where the Dodgers were swept by scores of 8-7, 6-1, and 3-0 in a game in which, but for a Matt Kemp bloop double down the right field line in the top of the fifth inning off of Dbacks left-hander Patrick Corbin, would have been no-hitter.

Matt Kemp’s excuse-me double in the fifth inning on Wednesday afternoon was the only hit the Dodgers would get in the eventual 3-0 shutout, to give the Diamondbacks the three-game series sweep.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

But here again, there are 155 games to go in the 2018 regular season and, if you are into such statistics, the 1988 Houston Astros began the season going 6-1 – just as they have this season – and we all know who won the 1988 World Series.

Need a little more reassuring?

Last season, the eventual 2017 National League champion Dodgers lost two straight on July 20 and 21 and then went 25–5 over their next 30 games and did not lose consecutive games during that run. They then went into a 1–16 skid that included a five-game and a six-game losing streak between August 26 and September 11. As such, a simple 2-5 record over the last week is a mere drop in the bucket in the big scheme of things.

That being said and even though “it’s still early” (a phrase that I absolutely abhor, because a win or loss in April is no less important than a win or loss in September), the Dodgers would be well advised to use this scheduled – and potential unscheduled – day(s) off to do a complete reboot and start over. If they do not, and if their offensive woes continue much longer and they continue to lose games, that whole relax thing goes right out the window.

As the great Al Davis once said: “Just win, baby.”