The great Bob Dylan said it best in his 1965 Music Hall of Fame hit song Like a Rolling Stone:

“When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

The San Diego Padres have nothing to lose.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have everything to lose – including a possible franchise record-setting sixth consecutive division title.

As such, the team with the fourth worst record in all of baseball this season (behind only the Orioles, Royals, and Marlins) would love nothing more than to squash the Dodgers hopes, dreams, and chances of accomplishing that historic mark by beating the Dodgers this weekend in the Dodgers final homestand of the 2018 regular season. Nothing more at all.

They are already one-third of the way there.

In a game that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts’ team was absolutely positively supposed to win over his good friend and colleague Bud Black’s NL West worst Padres, they did not. In fact, the Dodgers made the Padres actually look like contenders, allowing them five runs on eight hits that included two home runs.

In the other dugout, the Padres-resembling Dodgers managed only two runs on nine hits (including a solo home run by Kiké Hernandez in the bottom of the third inning), with normally flawless Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner committing both of the Dodgers two errors on the night and his sixth in his last eight games.

“I’ll take full responsibility for tonight,” Turner told reporters after the game. “You can’t give any team extra outs.”

When asked if he is in a defensive slump, the Dodgers best hitter and unofficial team captain again fell on his sword.

“You guys can call it whatever you want, I have to do a better job catching the ball,” he answered sharply. “I just haven’t made some plays the past couple of days. No excuse for it. Got to do a better job.”

The only real highlight of Friday night’s 5-2 loss to the Padres was Kiké’s third inning solo home run. He also made an absolutely brilliant diving catch earlier in the game. (Photo credit – Juan Ocampo)

Then again, the Dodgers going 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranding 10 men on base didn’t help matters either.

“That’s a tough one to figure out,” Roberts said, with his team now leading the NL West second place Colorado Rockies by only 1.5 games. “I know coming off this last series we were playing good baseball and coming into tonight’s game I thought we were ready to go. It just didn’t happen that we scored more runs than they did, but I don’t think it was a letdown situation. Tomorrow we’ll be ready to go. It’s a game we have to be ready to win.”

Close.

It’s a game that the Dodgers must win. If they do not, and should the Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondback again (as they did on Friday night), the Dodgers lead over the Rockies will be a mere half-game.

Let’s get it done, boys. After tonight’s game there are only seven games left in the regular season. And you can absolutely positively be assured that the Dbacks and the Hated Ones will also have a ‘nothing to lose’ mentality, and you can take that to the bank.

Play Ball!