Beloved Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda said it best:

“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.”

After winning eight games in a row, the good (now) 64-31 National League-leading Los Angeles Dodgers finally lost a game on Monday, just as the former Dodgers manager professed good teams would. Unfortunately, they did so to the bad (now) 33-65 MLB-worst Washington Nationals by a score of 4-1 at Dodger Stadium.

“Tonight we just couldn’t put anything together,” current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after his team’s less-than-stellar performance. “[Nationals starting pitcher Paolo] Espino, we just didn’t see him well and then they went to the pen and matched up, and we had a couple opportunities, couldn’t cash in, but there’s really not a whole lot to kind of dig in on, really.”

The silver lining to this otherwise dark cloud is that Dodgers left fielder Trayce Thompson did not have a bad night. In fact, the 31-year-old Los Angeles, CA native and second-round draft pick in 2009 by the Chicago White Sox out of Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, CA had a very good night, going 2-for-3, with a home run, a single, and a walk. Unfortunately, it would be the Dodgers only run of the night, having left nine runners on base, and going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

“Their starter just made a mistake, really – 0-2 and just kind of left a curveball kinda middle in – and just lucky enough to put a good swing on it,” Thompson said of his third home run of the season. “But just trying to have consistent at-bats and just kind of pass the baton.“

In case you were wondering, one-third of a 162-game regular baseball season is 54 games, so the Dodgers are still in the green in that regard.

Play Ball!

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