The Los Angeles Dodgers were crowned the World Series champions by baseball fans a week ago when they acquired Tarik Skubal in a blockbuster trade with the Detroit Tigers. Since then, though, the Dodgers have yet to win a game, with their latest defeat, a 4-3 loss at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks, may have been their most crushing one yet.
With a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the ninth, manager Dave Roberts summoned closer Edwin Diaz to come in and finish the game. Instead, he gave up a walk-off two-run home run to Ryan Waldschmidt, making it the seventh-straight loss for L.A. While he’s refusing to panic just yet, Roberts issued some strong words on Diaz’s struggles in his return from a right elbow injury.
Dave Roberts Gets Brutally Honest on Edwin Diaz’s Struggles
The addition of Skubal seemingly made the Dodgers invincible, but for as much talent as this team has on paper, it still needs to go out there and deliver the goods. Lately, they have not been able to do that, showing that the door may still be open for another team to prevent Los Angeles from winning its third-straight title.
Diaz personifies the unique narrative surrounding the Dodgers right now. After signing a three-year, $69 million contract with L.A. in free agency last offseason, Diaz was set to become the team’s closer. Instead, he had to undergo surgery on his right elbow in April that held him out for three months, as he only made his return to action at the end of July.
At his best, Diaz is an All-Star closer, but he has an 11.00 ERA in 11 appearances this year. In particular, he has struggled to locate his deadly slider since returning from the injured list, as that was the pitch Waldschmidt sent out of the park to propel Arizona to victory on Friday night. When asked about Diaz’s performance, Roberts hit his star closer with an eye-opening truth.
“I just think he just hasn’t had the feel for that pitch since he got back,” Roberts bluntly said after the game, before discussing whether he could remove Diaz from his role as the team’s closer. “You’ve got to look at the options, and see the way some of these guys are throwing. They’re not throwing great, either. We’ve got to keep guys in their roles that they’ve earned, and try to get them on a run the way we were a few weeks ago. I just don’t think there’s a clear-cut alternative.’’
Dodgers Need to Get Their Act Together Soon
GettyDave Roberts and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in the hot seat once again
The good news for the Dodgers is that, even with this losing streak, they still have a 7.5-game lead over the Diamondbacks in the National League West division. However, if the season ended today, L.A. would be the No. 3 seed in the NL playoff picture, as both the Milwaukee Brewers and Atlanta Braves have better records than the team currently.
That would force Los Angeles to play in a best-of-three wild card series, and while it would be favored to come out on top, its recent struggles have proven that anything can happen in the game of baseball. The Dodgers will look to stop the bleeding and get back in the win column when they return to action for the second game of their series against the D-Backs on Saturday at 8:10 p.m. ET.
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