Dodgers offense continues to struggle in loss to | College News

It’s too early to sound any alarm bells. The lineup is just too proficient, they consider, for the narrative not to ultimately flip.

But proper now, the Dodgers’ largest downside is just not troublesome to diagnose.

Their $400-million roster is just not hitting, plain and easy.

And in a 4-2 defeat to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday, it value them a third-straight collection loss in the wake of their roaring 8-0 begin to the season.

During that unbeaten barrage, when the Dodgers swept their opening collection in Tokyo earlier than profitable all six video games on their first homestand, the staff’s star-studded lineup was performing as anticipated. Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts set the tone on the high. Teoscar Hernández, Tommy Edman and Will Smith cashed in with runners on base. And although the underside of the batting order was struggling, the Dodgers have been nonetheless averaging more than 5 ½ runs per recreation, hardly seeming to discover Freddie Freeman’s early absence.

Over the final 9 video games, nonetheless, the offense has come to a screeching halt — serving as the largest downside in their present 3-6 rut.

Ohtani and Betts have been stable, however removed from superhuman. Everyone else is trudging alongside, if not toiling by means of a flat-out droop.

In supervisor Dave Roberts’ view, there was a lack of high quality “team at-bats,” with the supervisor bemoaning his staff’s tendency to chase pitches out of the zone in key conditions.

And even when the Dodgers have swung on the proper pitches, they haven’t completed a lot with them; a sobering actuality that turned all of the more obvious in Sunday’s nationally televised rubber match loss.

With Chicago swingman Colin Rea serving because the Cubs’ opener, the Dodgers received lots of good pitches to hit early in their Sunday Night Baseball showdown. Roughly a dozen instances, Rea supplied up mid-90s mph fastball close to the guts of the plate.

But of the 16 heaters the Dodgers swung at towards Rea, they whiffed six instances, put solely three in play and recorded only one hit — a Michael Conforto single in the second.

Conforto ultimately got here round to rating that inning, after one other single from Will Smith (a bloop hit on a first-pitch cutter) and a run-scoring knock from Kiké Hernández (his first non-home run of the season, after going deep for every of his first 4 hits).

From there, nonetheless, the Dodgers may mount little strain. Rea pitched 3 ⅔ innings with out permitting one other run. And the Cubs bullpen was equally stout, allowing only one rating the remainder of the best way.

On the mound, Tyler Glasnow bounced back from final week’s irritating outing in Philadelphia, when he imploded during a third-inning rain bathe for a disastrous five-run meltdown.

“He was frustrated at himself, rightfully so,” mentioned Roberts, who sought out Glasnow this week to guarantee he’d flushed any lingering disappointment. “He’s coming into today with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder.”

Over a robust six-inning begin, Glasnow simply did that, putting out seven batters, strolling just one and surrendering simply three hits.

The solely downside: Two of these hits towards Glasnow left the yard.

Pete Crow-Armstrong blasted a game-tying solo home run off the right-field foul pole in the third. Ex-Dodgers prospect Michael Busch ended a nine-pitch at-bat in the sixth with a solo shot to the Cubs bullpen, giving him six hits in his Chavez Ravine homecoming.

The Dodgers did get Glasnow off the hook for the loss in the sixth. Conforto singled again to lead off the inning. Smith doubled down the road to set up Max Muncy for a game-tying sacrifice fly.

But the Dodgers — as has so usually been the case during the last couple of weeks — failed to tack on.

Then, the Cubs retook the lead with more long ball in the highest of the seventh, with Crow-Armstrong launching on a hanging cutter from Blake Treinen to middle for his second home run of the day.

The Dodgers gift-wrapped some insurance coverage to the Cubs in the eighth, giving up one other run after Conforto missed a fly ball close to the left-field line for a leadoff double.

Given the best way the Dodgers have swung the bats recently, nonetheless, Chicago didn’t need it. Over their closing journeys to the plate, the Dodgers’ solely baserunner was through a stranded seventh-inning stroll from Betts.

The Dodgers have now misplaced three consecutive collection for the primary time since final April, once they endured a comparable early-season swoon. In that stretch, they’ve barely averaged three runs per recreation and are batting .218 as a staff. And, half a month into the season, their struggles on the plate have given them their first large downside to deal with.