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“No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference.”

Hall of Fame Manager Tommy Lasorda

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In the 153-year history of Major League Baseball, no team has ever gone 162-0, or even 154-0 back when teams only played 154 games prior to the 1962 season. Heck, even the team considered to be the best team of all time – the 1998 New York Yankees – lost 48 of their 162 regular-season games (114-48) before sweeping the San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Series.

However, (and you had to know a ‘however‘ was coming), there are certain games which I have long referred to as ‘Should-Have-Won‘ (SHW) games that occur during every regular season, and Wednesday’s game between the (now) 29-14 NL West first-place Dodgers and the (now) 15-30 NL East last-place Washington Nationals was a ‘SHW‘ game, which the Dodgers lost by a score of 1-0.

In no way is this intended to demean or discredit Nationals manager Dave Martinez‘s team, but the simple truth is that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ team looked flat from the very first pitch against them and went downhill from there.

“I think, first off, you have to give [Nationals starter Erick Fedde] credit, he threw the baseball well,” Roberts said postgame. “He was certainly up for this game and this matchup against us, and you have to tip your hat to him. I thought we had some opportunities at different points in the game but couldn’t get that big hit.”

Opportunities indeed. Roberts’ team went a collective 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position while stranding nine men on base.

The real victim of Wednesday’s ‘SHW‘ game was Dodgers’ left-hander Julio Urías, who absolutely pitched well enough to (and deserved to) win, allowing only one run on four hits over his near-perfect six-inning start, carrying a no-hitter into the fifth inning. And though no one knew it at the time, the Nationals eventually scored what would prove to be the only run of the game off of the here-to-for 5-0 / 26-year-old Culiacan, Mexico native on a RBI single by Nationals’ second baseman César Hernández in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The silver lining to all of this is that the NL West second-place San Diego Padres also lost on Wednesday to remain 1.5 games back of the Dodgers in the NL West standings, so there’s that.

Play Ball!

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