It is difficult – if not impossible – to believe that a team with a roster that includes several of the best players in franchise history and a couple future Hall of Famers would miss the 2023 postseason by one game; simply hard to believe. But should that happen, the current 35-26 National League West second place Los Angeles Dodgers can point to the game on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 against the current 28-33 National League Central third place Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati as the single reason why – at least to this point of the 2023 season.

To lose a game by a score of 9-8 that you led lead by a score of 8-3 after five innings is, in one word, inexcusable, yet that is exactly what happened.

“No loss is ever a good loss,” Dodgers first baseman (and one of those aforementioned future Hall of Famers) Freddie Freeman said succinctly postgame.

Freddie was being very polite with reporters.

Not so with Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who, quite frankly, is every bit as responsible for this (thus far) worst loss of the season as anyone on the field. Here’s what the Dodgers skipper had to say to reporters postgame:

“Just overall, not a lot of good. We scored eight runs, which was certainly a positive. We scored three runs in the first inning and go back and give away three in the bottom half (of the inning). Not good. Tony (Gonsolin) threw so many pitches that first inning, could only go five innings. And we were fortunate to get him through five innings.

“So what that does, is that exposes you in the bullpen. Then when you go to the bullpen, they’ve got to be better. Evan (Phillips) was solid in facing their best hitters, giving us a chance to take another at-bat in the top of the ninth inning, I felt made sense.

“Tonight, Fergie (Caleb Ferguson) was all over the place. The walks, the hit batsman, it sped up on him. It was very apparent tonight. Got to take responsibility. This was a tough one. With this group of arms that we have in the ‘pen, it shouldn’t happen.”

What shouldn’t have happened was leaving a clearly ineffective ‘Fergie’ out there to allow three earned runs on three hits, with three walks and one hit batsman when he obviously (at least to everyone on the planet but Roberts) didn’t have it to literally give the game away.

“I’ve just got to pitch better. I felt good. Just pitch better,” Ferguson admitted postgame. “Some good, some bad. Hey, look, it’s the game, man. We play 162 of these things. Some are going to go good, some are going to go bad. I’ve been bad. I hope Doc keeps running me out there and I’ll figure it out.”

That makes one of us.

The painful truth is that there is something wrong with Ferguson, either mental or physical. But leaving him in (or even putting him into) a clearly ‘should have won’ game is not the place to figure it out. That blunder clearly rides on the shoulders of Dave Roberts. Simply put, the one-time extremely effective Columbus, OH native and Dodgers 38th round draft pick in 2014 out of West Jefferson High School in West Jefferson, OH either needs to go on the inured list or spend some time at Triple-A OKC to “…figure it out.”

“Those are just tough losses. There’s really nothing else to say in those situations,” Freeman, who hit a grand slam home run in the top of the fourth inning to give the Dodgers a then 8-3 lead, told SportsNet LA’s Kirsten Watson in a noticeably quiet Dodgers postgame clubhouse. “Just a tough loss. Come back tomorrow, hopefully get a lead and give the ball to those same (bullpen) guys, because we have all the confidence in the world in those guys.”

Although “those guys” are collectively 15-10 after 61 games this season, they also have a combined MLB-worst 4.52 ERA.

But hey, Dave Roberts’ Dodgers still have 101 games remaining in the 2023 regular season, so there’s that.

Let’s just hope that they don’t miss the postseason because of this forgettable unforgettable loss to the Reds on June 6, 2023 – the 79th anniversary of D-Day.

Play Ball!

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