*  *  * 

“We won a game yesterday. If we win today, it’s called ‘two in a row.’ And if we win again tomorrow, it’s called ‘a winning streak’ … It has happened before!” – Actor James Gammon in the role of Lou Brown in the popular movie Major League II (1974)

  *  *  *  * 

The Dodgers ‘won a game yesterday’ – Saturday, actually.

They did not win ‘today’ – Sunday, actually, and have now lost five of their last six games and 15 of their last 20.

Even a fictional movie character would call that what it is – ‘a losing streak.’

Granted, because the Dodgers managed to squeak in five wins with those 20 losses, it’s technically not a losing streak. But even a baseball novice recognizes that it is as close as you can get to a losing streak without actually being in one – something that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts still has difficulty owning up to.

Not so for 30-year-old Dodgers right-hander Trevor Bauer who, like the rest of the Dodgers starting rotation, once again put – and kept – his team in a position to win in Sunday afternoon’s embarrassing 2-1 loss to the American League West last-place Angels of Anaheim

Bauer allowed only two runs on four hits while walking four and striking out nine over his very efficient six innings of work. Unfortunately for the North Hollywood, CA native and first-round draft pick (third overall) in 2011 out of UCLA by the Arizona Diamondbacks and the defending National League Cy Young award winner, his teammates, like they have done for the rest of the Dodgers starting rotation, let him down, for which he took the high road and would not blame them.

“I don’t necessarily want to speak for the team; I don’t know, there’s 40 other guys in the locker room they feel… I don’t know how they feel,” Bauer said postgame. “I’m pissed, personally. I frickin’ hate losing. I want to win, that’s why I came here, and we’re just not playing up to our capability right now. So, I’m mad. I’m not going to speak for anybody else.

“You can find ways to win baseball games, and you can find ways to lose them. It’s early, and you can say it’s early, and you can say there’s no need to panic; you can say all these things, and it’s all true. We’re just saying we’re not just going to roll out the bats and balls and win baseball games. We’re not just going to sleepwalk our way through winning another division title and going to the World Series again. That’s not how it works, you know? It’s you got to go out there and beat them every day, and we haven’t been good at it, and we need to be better.”

Although there are a variety of reasons why the Dodgers aren’t winning, the glaring one is their complete ineptitude to hit with runners on base and especially with runners in scoring position. How inept, you ask? How about going a dismal 2-for-19 (.105) with men on base and an unaceptable 1-for-11 (.091) with runners in scoring position on Sunday.

“Two-for-19 with men on base, they’re not getting it done with runners in scoring position,” former Dodger great and current SportsNet LA color analyst Orel Hershiser said postgame. “The offense got a ton of walks today – nine ties a season-high – but they still can’t move them around. It is really to a point where we go ‘Who are these guys?’ and we’re starting to find out they’re a team that’s not scoring many runs.”

As noted, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts continues to keep a blind eye to his team’s struggles. In fact, when asked if he was “concerned” about his team’s failure to hit with runners in scoring position this past Friday, his exact words were: “I wouldn’t say concerned, I just think it’s something that we know we need to get better at.”

Not only does Dave Roberts need to get concerned, he needs to get “pissed.”

Play Ball!

  *  *  *  *  *  *