Although its origin is linked to the NFL, after an unexpected loss, beloved Hall of Fame Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda would occasionally utter the phrase:

“Any team can beat any other team on any given day.”

But Ebby Calvin ‘The Nuke’ LaLoosh, played by Academy Award-winning actor Tim Robbins in the 1988 hit baseball movie Bull Durham, said it even better:

It didn’t rain on Monday night at a sold out Dodger Stadium and the Dodgers didn’t win. In other words, the (now) 92-42 NL West first place Dodgers lost to the (now) 65-68 NL West third place San Francisco Giants – badly – by a score of 7-4.

“I was throwing [stuff] right down the middle,” said Dodgers starting left-hander Andrew Heaney, who allowed six runs on six hits – including four home runs – in his 5.1 innings pitched. “Didn’t do a good job of mixing pitches very well, didn’t put guys away. I made mistakes, they capitalized.”

Yes, they did.

“I think that the mistakes that he is making, they’re just going out of the ballpark instead of mis-hitting or fouling off,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said in defense of Heaney. “I think the internal numbers, as long as he’s throwing the ball well, the stuff’s good, there’s swing and miss in there, there’s something we can certainly build upon.”

The concern is that “we” have exactly 28 games remaining in the 2022 regular season to “build upon,” which, barring a roster move, translates into four or five more starts for each of the current Dodgers starters, including the 31-year-old Oklahoma City, OK native and first-round draft pick in 2009 by the Miami Marlins out of Oklahoma State University.

On the bright side, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman hit his 17th home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning – a two-run shot to right field – to give the Dodgers a brief 2-0 lead, and Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes hit his seventh home run of the season – a seventh-inning blast to left-center field – to cut the (then) Giants lead to 6-4, so there’s that.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.

Play Ball!

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