Everyone from Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully through and including broadcasters Rick Monday, Charlie Steiner and color analysts Orel Hershiser and Jerry Hairston Jr. are using the exact same phrase to describe the Dodgers defense this season – “They’re not very crisp.” Yet in spite of themselves, the Dodgers are in first place in the NL West.

Has the Dodgers pitching and offense been that good, or have they just been incredibly lucky? My guess is that it’s a little of both.

Andre Ethier’s clutch 3-run home run in the bottom of the 4th inning helped turn a laugher (the bad kind) into a laugher (the good kind) – this in spite of Hanley Ramirez’s extremely costly 4-run error. (Photo credit – Juan Ocampo)

Heading into play on Sunday afternoon the Dodgers rank 29th in the MLB in errors – that’s 29th out of 30 teams. Through their first 18 games the Dodgers have committed 19 errors in 725 total chances (TC) for a combined fielding percentage (FPCT) of .974. Only the Washington Nationals have committed more errors than the Dodgers with 20 in 649 TC chances for a combined FPCT of .974.

As is normally the case, most of the Dodgers errors have been committed by their infielders. First baseman Adrian Gonzalez, catcher A.J. Ellis and utility infielder Justin Turner (as a third baseman) have committed one error each, with second baseman Dee Gordon, third baseman Juan Uribe and catcher Tim Federowicz committing two errors each. (Matt Kemp has two and pitchers Josh Beckett, Chris Withrow and Brian Wilson each have one).

But it is shortstop Hanley Ramirez who blows the lid wide open with five of the Dodgers 19 errors. And while it is not uncommon for a shortstop to lead a team in errors, committing more than 25% of a team’s total errors is definitely on the high side. Ramirez’s five errors in 68 TC represents a FPCT of .926 – definitely not Gold Glove material.

In Saturday’s nationally televised game, Hanley’s drop of a routine 4-6-3 double play ball in the 3rd inning allowed the inning to continue. It wasn’t as if Gordon’s feed to Ramirez was off-line or anything; in fact, it hit Ramirez squarely in the chest and he flat out dropped it in the transfer. When the dust finally settled, what should have been an inning-ending double play turned into a 4-0 Dbacks lead.

Because of an outstanding pitching performance by 33-year-old right-hander Dan Haren and a huge three-run home run by Andre Ethier in the 4th inning, the Dodgers were able to get back into the game. They added five more runs in the 5th inning on consecutive hits by Haren, Gordon and Crawford, a fielding error by Dbacks third baseman Martin Prado and a huge two-run single by Gonzalez. Ironically, AGon’s single came off of left-hander Oliver Perez, who Dbacks manager Kirk Gibson had brought in specifically to face the left-handed hitting Gonzalez. Not only did Gibson’s move backfire, but it allowed Gonzalez to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.

Right-hander Dan Haren was absolutely brilliant in Saturday’s 8-6 win over the struggling Dbacks. Haren allowed 5 runs (2 earned) in his 7.1 innings of work and is now 3-0 on the season. Haren is seen here striking out Dbacks first baseman Paul Goldschmidt looking in the 1st inning. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Even though the Dbacks managed two additional runs in the top of the 8th inning off of a still rusty Brian Wilson, the Dodgers hung on to win by a score of 8-6 with the save going to Kenley Jansen (6) – this in spite of Ramirez’s error and another by Uribe.

The point to all of this is that the regardless of the Dodgers excellent starting pitching and their occasional outbursts of offense, they really need to tighten up their defense if they are to have any hopes of returning to the postseason.

As the age-old baseball saying goes, ‘Pitching and defense wins championships.’

…although an occasional 3-run home run doesn’t hurt either.