LOS ANGELES — Yes, Dodger fan, we know. You’ve been reminded that it’s all about October and mid-August is still part of the stage-setting process.
Um, it could be a little more important than that.
In the midst of their traditional midsummer funk, the Dodgers may have cost themselves home-field advantage in a potential National League Championship Series against Milwaukee.
Sunday afternoon, the Brewers waited out Tarik Skubal, who left after six innings and 109 pitches trailing 2-1. Then they got into the soft underbelly of the Dodgers – the bullpen, naturally – in a 6-2 victory that clinched the season series between the clubs. In other words, if they wind up with identical records at season’s end, the Brewers took care of the tiebreaker Sunday afternoon and would host a playoff Game 7 if it came to that.
Worried yet? Yes, the scenario is similar to last October, only the Dodgers didn’t let the NLCS get back to Milwaukee. Could it be that these Brewers might be a harder out than last year’s?
Also, at the end of Sunday’s play, the Dodgers are again in position to have to play the wild card round, as they had to a year ago. They are third among division leaders: Milwaukee has baseball’s best record at 77-48 (and played like it during the course of this four-game series). Atlanta is 74-50 and the No. 2 division leader. The Dodgers are 74-51, have three more opportunities against the Braves, Aug. 25-27 in Atlanta, and currently trail that season series 2-1.
Oh, and what was once a 14½ game lead in the division is down to seven games over San Diego and eight over Arizona. The Dodgers are done with the Diamondbacks, against whom they’ve lost five of their last six, and have three more with the Padres at home the final week of the season. Could your nerves handle a postseason series against either of those teams?
But none of this matters if they can’t start scoring runs more frequently.
In the last 32 games, a stretch that began with the Diamondbacks’ three-game sweep in Dodger Stadium right before the All-Star Game, L.A. has scored 118 runs, an average of 3.68 per game. In only eight of those games have they scored more than four runs, and of those eight, they lost half of them.
“We’ve been getting hits, we’ve been getting guys on base and we just haven’t been driving them in,” Max Muncy said after Sunday’s game, in which the Dodgers were limited to six hits – including solo home runs by Muncy and Andy Pages – but were 1 for 3 with runners in scoring position, had five baserunners total and hit into two double plays.
“We’ve actually been doing a really good job of getting on base (overall), he said. “It’s just finding a way to get the run across. We’ve really been struggling with that. But it seems like when we hit the ball hard, we hit it right out somebody for a double play. And we haven’t really been doing it with a lot of luck. But I think we’re doing a lot good things. It’s again, we’re not finding a way to get a run across and it’s obviously the main goal.”
His manager, Dave Roberts, looks at all of those at-bats over the last five weeks and sees an approach that needs to change.
“I think for me, this has been cumulative,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been consistent offensively. And I think, for me, it’s winning a 2-1 pitch and not chasing, winning a 3-2 pitch, taking the walk, not chasing the first pitch …
“I see our guys. You know, we’re chasing off (the plate) in, chasing away, and I just don’t see the consistent plan of attack, one through nine. And, you know, the results are hard, hitting’s hard. But I do think that fighting and winning pitches, spoiling pitches, that’s care, hunger, and that’s a reason why, (when) you look at four and a half months of the season, the Brewers have outscored us.”
The Brewers play small ball. They’re smart on the bases. They took advantage of two Dodger errors, both by Tommy Edman, to score three of their six runs Sunday. And they ran up Skubal’s pitch count; the new Dodgers starter threw 56 pitches in the first three innings and 109 over six, though he ended his stint Sunday with a flourish by striking out the side.
But it’s not necessarily what the Brewers have been doing right as it is what the Dodgers need to figure out offensively, individually and collectively.
Because in that 31-game stretch that has turned their season from a coronation into the potential for suspense, they’re 13-18 overall, 5-5 in one-run games (with two of the victories over Kansas City last week) and 10-8 in games decided by two runs or less.
“This has been four, five, six weeks of below average production from our offense,” Roberts said. “It’s the truth … Our pedigree, what we typically do, is control the zone, grind it, grind at bats, you know, create stress. We’re just not doing that.”
How does that change? Is it up to players to individually be better and not chase bad pitches? Or do guys have to remind each other about what has made them successful?
“It’s a combo (of the) above, you know,” Roberts said. “I’d like to think that they’re all aware of it … We’ve just got to kind of reset offensively. It just can’t happen all at once but it kind of starts building collectively, and then once we do that then you get the big hit, things like that.
“But it’s a process of each pitch and passing the baton, valuing every single pitch. And mentally it’s not easy, but we can do it. We’ve done it many times over before.”
And if it doesn’t change? This season’s combination of a sputtering offense and a shaky bullpen – exposed again Sunday as the Brewers padded their lead in the late innings – is already way too stomach-churning for Dodger fans.
Are they really ready for a final six weeks that could wind up feeling like a roller coaster gone berserk?
jalexander@scng.com