Fact: The 1927 Yankees – often considered the greatest team in the 150-year history of Major League Baseball – lost 44 games (to go along with their 110 wins) back when the regular season was 154 games long. Heck, even the the 2001 Seattle Mariners – the greatest team since the expansion era began in 1961 – lost 46 games (with their 116 wins).

So when the lowly National League East fourth-place Washington Nationals handed the National League West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers their 15th loss of the 2019 season on Thursday night in front of 42,851 at Dodger Stadium, it did not and will not prevent them from still possibly becoming the greatest team of all time.

Realistically, the chances of the Dodgers actually besting the 116-win 2001 Seattle Mariners are quite remote. In fact, even the most generous (so-called) baseball experts put them at 108 wins, which would give them 54 losses during the regular season. In other words, the current 25-15 Dodgers still have quite a bit of wiggle room in the 122 games that remain in the 2019 regular season, so they’ve got that going for them.

From the very first batter that 39-year-old Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill faced on Thursday night (Nationals left fielder Adam Eaton), you could just tell that the extremely popular Boston, Massachusetts native was not on his game. After allowing a leadoff double to Eaton and striking out right fielder Victor Robles, Hill hit third baseman Anthony Rendon before giving up a three-run home run to Nationals first baseman (and former Dodger) Howie Kendrick to make it a 3-0 ballgame before the seats were even warm at The Ravine. It would be all the Nats would need in the eventual 6-0 shellacking of the team with the best record in the MLB.

“Just got to not do that, that would be nice,” the always brutally-honest Rich Hill answered when asked about his first-inning struggles on Thursday night. “It’s executing pitches and not leaving breaking balls down the middle.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gave a bit more detailed answer to the question.

“If you look back to the last couple years, there was something similar to that where we sort of changed his regimen to combat that,” Roberts said. “I haven’t dug into Rich’s pregame routine because I still feel his intensity and intent is always there. I don’t have a reason.”

Whatever the reason, Hill is now 0-1 with a less-than-stellar 4.20 ERA on the season through three starts; a season that began with him on the Injured List for a strained medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his left knee.

Forty down, 122 to go … and the Dodgers absolutely positively will not win all of them – that, you can take to the bank.

As the ages-old saying goes: “Any team can beat any other team on any given day.”

Play Ball!

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