It is an acronym that I haven’t had to use for a while: SHW – Should Have Won.

Wednesday night’s 9-8 Dodgers loss to the NL West last place Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver was a SHW game.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summed it up perfectly:

“A lot of hits out there, and when you hit guys, walk guys, give them free bases, you know big numbers are gonna happen like they did tonight.”

The ‘they’ are the five runs and the four hits that the Dodgers bullpen surrendered that included three walks and a hit batsmen (on a 1-2 count), turning what should have been 26-year-old Dodgers right-hander Michael Grove‘s second win of the season into the Dodgers 35th loss of the season, thereby missing a golden opportunity to pick up a full game on the NL West second place San Francisco Giants and NL West first place Arizona Diamondbacks, who also lost on Wednesday.

Although Roberts’ ‘they’ was used collectively regarding his once again struggling bullpen, Roberts could have used ‘he’, with the ‘he’ being 27-year-old Dodgers left-hander Victor González, who gave up three runs, three hits, and hit a batter, but the Dodgers skipper rarely (if ever) throws his players ‘under the bus’, as they say. Then again, 24-year-old Dodgers right-hander Nick Robertson didn’t help matters either, allowing two runs on two hits with two walks (one with the bases loaded) to ‘earn’ his first blown save of the season against the worst team in the National League.

But, you can’t win them all, and in the immortal words of Nuke LaLoosh (played by Tim Robbins) in the epic baseball movie Bull Durham:

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

Play Ball!

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