May 11th, 2021 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka The Dodgers have played 35 games thus far into the 2021 regular season. They have won 18 of them and lost 17 for a .514 winning percentage. With the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants having won on Monday while the Dodgers were idle, the Dodgers now trail the ‘Hated Ones’ by 3.0 games, and the ‘Not-Liked-Very-Much-Either’ second-place San Diego Padres, whose game against the Colorado Rockies in Denver was postponed on Monday, by 2.0 games. As of this writing, the defending World Series champions have 127 games remaining in the regular season.
Although we were taught at a very young age: “There’s no such thing as a sure thing,” it’s a pretty ‘sure thing’ that a .514 winning percentage will not win the National League Western Division.
With the Dodgers having lost 15 of their last 20 games and five of their last six, several Dodger players are finally beginning to rebuke the ages-old (and ever-annoying) “It’s still early” line. (Have you ever noticed that you never hear this from winning teams, only losing teams?).
On Tuesday evening, the Dodgers open a much-needed nine-game homestand after their devastating 11-game road trip, during which they went an embarrassing 2-9. Not exactly the type of play that you would expect from the defending World Champions and the team that many (used to) call ‘the best team in baseball.’ In fact, as astutely noted by True Blue LA‘s Blake Harris, the team that once led Major League Baseball in every power-ranking category now leads in none of them (ouch).
If there is a silver lining to this seemingly endless bad news (and team-wide slump), it’s that the Dodgers open their nine-game homestand with two against the AL West third-place 18-17 Seattle Mariners, followed by a two-game series with the NL East fourth-place 15-19 Miami Marlins following an off day on Thursday.
That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that they conclude their homestand with four against the division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks. And even though the D-backs are currently in fourth place in the NL West at 16-19, they currently trail the slumping Dodgers by only two games. Needless to say, this four-game set with Arizona will have a significant effect on the NL West standings.
In the simplest of terms, the Dodgers must, absolutely must turn things around now if they hope to repeat as World Series Champions.
Play Ball!
* * * * * *
Posted in 
Must start winning soon. A decent streak and 2 weeks from now we would be back in first after finishing the series with the Giants. Dodgers are way better than this and the Giants will collapse in June as usual.
i expect a nono tonite since they are going up against a guy with a 4.3 era and a losing record but has held our roster to 2/17. one of those going to pollock and the other to beaty. i guess we shouldn’t expect to see either one of them in line up since pollock is hurt and beaty, well, you know, i hear that beaty does more for us by sitting on the bench…
The sooner the Dodgers start winning (and I mean really winning) the better.
Couldn’t agree more, Joe. For me “really winning” means taking at least 2 out of 3.