It has been a rough couple of weeks for sports fans in the City of Angels. After too many near misses to count, the Dodgers have lost both series on their current road trip, most by only one run, but in some cases by quite a few more – including being swept by the Chicago Cubs – with a three-game ‘Freeway Series’ with the Angels of Anaheim at The Big-A still to go.

This is a hard pill to swallow for loyal Dodger fans after being spoiled during the 2020 shortened season, with the team dropping only one series before winning the franchise’s seventh World Series championship. This, however, is a new year, and the team is hoping to “run it back” in their bid for back-to-back World Series titles.

To say the year has gotten off to a slow start would be an understatement. After being swept by the Cubs, the Dodgers have dropped 13 of their last 17 games and are now in third place in the National League West at 17-15 behind the 18-13 San Francisco Giants and the 18-14 San Diego Padres.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has, until Wednesday night, stuck to a narrative that the team was going through “a little lull.” As most fans would agree, it is well beyond “just a little lull”. While the Dodgers rack their collective brains trying to figure out how to get their groove back, fans have taken to ‘armchair (or Twitter) managing’ their beloved team to deal with so many unexpected losses by the team many baseball experts repeatedly referred to as “the best team in baseball.”

“We’re absolutely frustrated,” Dodgers first baseman Max Muncy said, following Wednesday’s embarrassing 11-inning -5 loss to the Cubs. “We’re way better than this – period.”

Outside of third-baseman Justin Turner, the Dodgers offense is just not hitting. Quality at-bats are few and far between. Some have speculated that if the team is unable to play up to their World Series caliber, perhaps they should shake things up a bit. Perhaps something as simple as re-working the current lineup could breathe new life into the Dodgers’ ice-cold bats.

Throughout this “lull,” Roberts has not changed his line-up much. Right fielder Mookie Betts, who struck out three times on Wednesday, continues to be the Dodgers leadoff hitter, despite sporting a .248/.358/.410/.768 slash-line. World Series MVP shortstop Corey Seager is not faring much better, slashing .250/.348/.433/.781. As the two guys who are supposed to pack the most punch coming out of the gate, it does not leave much for Turner to work with as the number three hitter and the team’s most consistent hitter, leading the team in hits (36), home runs (7), and RBI (22).

Although Roberts has varied the clean-up spot a few times since the season began by occasionally mixing in catcher Will Smith, the bulk of the clean-up at bats (plate appearances) have been going to Dodgers first baseman Max Muncy. And while Muncy (and Roberts) like to boast about the fact that he leads all of baseball with his 29 walks, your cleanup hitter is supposed to hit and drive in runs, not walk two or three times per game.

Overall, the majority of the team could use a boost. It’s pretty bad when one of your starting pitchers has a better batting average than several regular everyday players. Future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw has had some quality at-bats in the early goings and been put in some unique situations already this year – twice as a late-innings pinch hitter. He currently boasts a .273 batting average which, as of right now, is better than Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Gavin Lux, and Chris Taylor.

In the words of Major League movie character Pedro Cerrano: “The bats, they are sick.” The team needs to do something, anything…

Let’s hope the bats wake up sooner rather than later for the Boys in Blue.

Let’s go, Dodgers!

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