Who would have ever thought that a three-game weekend series with the NL West last place San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium would prove to be the single biggest series of the 2018 season for the Dodgers, yet here we are.

Oh sure, I fully get that it means absolutely nothing in the big scheme of things for Andy Green’s 50-79 Padres other than bragging rights. But the brutally painful truth – and we’re talking potentially season-ending painful for the Dodgers here – is that anything short of a three-game sweep of the third worst team in the MLB could very well knock the Dodgers out of playoff contention.

How do you figure, you ask?

Consider this.

With only 34 games remaining in the 2018 regular season, the Dodgers have backed themselves into a corner from which they might not be able to escape. Not only are they now 4.5 games behind the division-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, they are also now 3.0 games behind the second place Colorado Rockies. As such, not only must the Dodgers put together some type of winning streak over the final six weeks of the season, they are also at the mercy of teams playing both the Dbacks and Rockies to beat them while the Dodgers also win if they hope to gain ground on their division rivals. In other words, without help, the Dodgers could very well be on the brink of postseason elimination – both in the division and in the Wild Card race.

Even with seven games remaining against Arizona, four at Dodger Stadium (August 30 – September 2) and three at Chase Field (September 24-26), the Dodgers will need the Rockies to lose a minimum of four games while the Dodgers win in order to catch and pass them in the NL West standings. And for as poorly as the Dodgers have been playing since the All-Star break (14-18 = .437), this is a monumental task; hence, they absolutely must sweep the Padres this weekend and hope (pray) that those same Padres beat the Rockies at Petco Park on Thursday afternoon, and that the St. Louis Cardinals, who just swept the Dodgers, also sweep Colorado this weekend in Denver.

And then there’s Kenley Jansen.

All the Dodgers All-Star closer has done since returning from the 10-day disabled list this past Monday for an irregular heartbeat is lose two of the three games of the just-concluded three-game series with the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium; so there’s that to deal with as well.

Jansen has made a total of 48 pitches since returning from the DL on Monday. Three of them landed on the other side of the wall. (Video capture courtesy of ESPN)

What does Dodgers manager Dave Roberts have to say about his seriously slumping offense and his (still) beleaguered bullpen?

“It’s definitely redundant, it’s kind of the same thing we’ve seen,” Roberts told reporters following Wednesday night’s 3-1 loss to the Cardinals. “But there’s no other choice but to keep going.

“Walker [Buehler] pitched a tremendous game, going pitch-to-pitch with [Cardinals right-hander Jack] Flaherty and put us in a position to win a baseball game, and we didn’t get it done,” said Roberts. “So obviously we gotta find a way to win, these are our guys and we’re going to continue to go with them.”

As for Jansen, the Dodgers skipper didn’t pull any punches with his star closer.

“It’s just… for me it’s not rust, I think it’s just execution,” Roberts said. “But even the [Paul] DeJong ball – top of the zone – I didn’t see the characteristic of how much it cut, it was 93 (mph) I saw, and he put a good swing on it. Broken bat hit to [Jedd] Gyorko, and then the home run, and that was the difference in the ballgame.

“Kenley’s going out there and giving us everything he has, and right now it’s just not working out,” he added.

The good news is that the Dodgers will head into their three-game series against the Padres having won nine of 13 from the Friars.

The bad news is that they lost four.

And with their very season on the line, anything short of a sweep this weekend could prove fatal for Dave Roberts’ team.

Play Ball!