It is an absolute fact of life: every major league baseball player goes through slumps; some more often than others. It is also a fact that it generally does not happen to everyone on the same team at the same time.

Generally.

Nearly everyone currently on the Dodgers 26-man active roster is slumping. In fact, over their last four games, they are a combined 17-for-117 for a combined .145 batting average.

“I just think that we just have to find a way to create baserunners and keep putting ourselves in positions to drive runs in,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after his team’s second consecutive loss to the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. “We do that, “we’ll start scoring more. It’s just one hit at a time. We just have to, collectively, keep taking good at-bats.”

They have not been taking good at-bats.

Of those 117 at-bats over those last four games, Dodger batters have struck out 37 times while walking 15 times.

Adding insult to injury, literally, former MLB MVP and two-time Dodgers All-Star outfielder Cody Bellinger is still on the injured list with a hairline fracture in his left leg, smoking hot utility infielder/outfielder Zach McKinstry was just added to the IL for a strained oblique, popular Dodgers utility infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor has missed the last two games with lower back tightness, and right-hander Corey Knebel is about to hit the IL for shoulder discomfort in his right (throwing) triceps after facing only one batter on Friday night.

But alas, and as so many like to say: “It’s still early;” and indeed it is, with the Dodgers having played only 20 of their scheduled 162 regular season games thus far. The problem is, of course, that at some point, it will no longer be “still early.” Depending on one’s personal opinion of when this is, and should the Dodgers still be struggling, the sky will indeed be falling.

Play Ball!

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