We’ve been hearing it for over three weeks now: “…just a little lull,” “…a little funk,” “…it will turn,” “… it’s a long season,” and the dreaded “… it’s still early.” But the simple cold, hard truth is that the Los Angeles Dodgers – the defending World Series Champions, the “best team in baseball,” the team picked by many to “…win it all,” – just plain suck.

Fact:

“Obviously, we haven’t won a lot of baseball games in the last couple of weeks,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after his team was swept in both games of a doubleheader by the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Tuesday. “I think if you just kind of look at how we’re playing baseball pitch-for-pitch, it’s just not all around, all facets of the game, executing. And so, that’s what happens when you don’t do that.”

For this deep, analytical assessment, Roberts is making $12 million through the 2022 season.

That “…not all around, all facets of the game, executing” thing reared its ugly head in Game-1 of the twin bill when Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw was removed after only one inning, having allowed four runs on four hits, including a bases-clearing double by Cubs third baseman David Bote. It was the first time in his 14-year Hall of Fame career that Kershaw lasted only one inning.

“It’s embarrassing. No excuses. That was horrible. I put our team in a really bad spot in the doubleheader,” a visibly upset Kershaw said after the game. “Thankfully, the ‘pen stepped up and ate some innings for me. Just chalk it up to a really bad start and get ready for the next one.”

Perhaps Roberts can learn a thing or two from his ace about telling it like it is instead of trying to spin it as only he can.

Game-2 gave Dodger fans hope that their beloved team would at least end the day with a split, after right-hander Trevor Bauer kept his team in the game through four innings of the scheduled seven-inning affair. The Southern California native and defending National League Cy Young award winner allowed only one run on four hits, while walking four and striking out seven. He did, however, give up a solo home run to Cubs slugger Jason Heyward in the bottom of the fourth inning to break the then 0-0 tie.

But the anemic Dodgers offense would tie the game and actually take a 3-1 lead in the (extra) eighth inning. Unfortunately, the beleaguered Dodgers bullpen was unable to hold on to that lead and suffered a 4-3 loss.

The burning question among Dodger fans is why Roberts did not allow his closer, right-hander Kenley Jansen, who pitched a scoreless and hitless seventh inning on only 15 pitches, to come back out to pitch the eighth, with his team now leading 3-1. Unfortunately, we will never know the answer to this question, as it was not asked of Roberts during his Game-2 postgame presser. He did, however, have this to say:

“We’ve put ourselves in positions to play extra-inning games when I think that we probably shouldn’t have,” Roberts said. “I don’t really have an answer for the one and five [record in extra-inning games this season], but I do know the innings prior to the extra innings, collectively, we could’ve done a better job to not even be in that extra-inning situation.”

Deep.

To his credit, the oft criticized Bauer made light of his rough outing on Tuesday (which wasn’t bad at all) by positing this on Twitter:

Thanks, Trevor. We needed that.

Play Ball!

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