The vibes - the vibes, they are not good, peeps.
Eric has his weekly roundup article out noting All-Star week and sweeps.
I would like to note mine as Sweeps and Weeps.
It really seems nothing is going the Dodgers’ way lately. If you are one to believe in karma, you may have a few ideas as to why. But to avoid being called ‘sanctimonious’ in the comments again, I’ll refrain on those for now.
The pitching - well, the Dodgers go through this every year. Hopefully, they are rounding that corner health-wise,
and things are looking up. Clayton Kershaw looks good. Tyler Glasnow has looked great since his return. Blake Snell has looked pretty good on his rehab outings and should be back with the team in the near future. The bullpen can be bolstered with the imminent return of Blake Treinen, and an acquisition at the trade deadline.
The offense is another issue. It stands to reason that the Big Three can’t all stay slumping at the same time forever, but it's not looking great right now either. Shohei Ohtani is the only one who is healthy* at the moment. Mookie Betts is a shell of his former self, and Freddie Freeman just was hit on the wrist in Sunday’s game. Manager Dave Roberts said X-Rays were negative and Freeman should just be day-to-day. But we’ve all heard things like that before that didn’t turn out to be true.
*don’t come after me or Ohtani for that statement, baseball gods, please
The offense also fell off a cliff when Max Muncy got hurt, and this is no coincidence. It’s one thing when your big three can’t get it together, and another when your third baseman gets hurt for a chunk of time, causing a domino effect for the rest of the lineup. While he started the season in a slump, Max had finally hit his stride at the plate. The Dodgers have only won two games since he was taken out by a helmet to his knee.
Muncy being hurt leads to a shuffle of players trying to fill in at spots they haven’t played at much before, and using players who aren’t the best offensively. All of this compounded with higher-than-average rates of bad defense and woof this team is hard to watch.
Whatever, we all know this. And the Dodgers have gone through slumps before. They did almost the same slump before the All-Star Game last season, and we all remember The Great Slump of ‘17.
I don’t know but this year feels different. Something feels a little off. I was 97% sure the Dodgers would win the World Series in those years, and they did. (Do not tell me they didn’t in 2017 I will not listen). Is it karma? Is it greed? Is it not speaking up for your community when you should? Is it just baseball? Who’s to say.
It will all sort itself out as it always does. As has been prove many times in the past, the team is too talented to continue to flounder for too long.
In the meantime, it is not very fun to watch this team play, or to see players to be censoring themselves in interviews with the press afterwards. After the World Series last season, players said their rough patches through the season made them all the better for it in the postseason. Let's hope that rings true again this season.
The Dodgers now begin a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins at home, before heading to Boston for the weekend. Shohei Ohtani returns to the mound, facing off against David Festa, a righty with a 3-3 record and 5.25 era. A quick perusal of betting lines on Twitter has most taking the under of 4.5 strikeouts by Festa. Ohtani has not allowed an earned run yet this season, hopefully facing a sub-.500 team can put the Dodgers back on track.
Monday game info
- Teams: Dodgers vs. Twins
- Ballpark: Dodger Stadium
- Start time: 7:10 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
More from truebluela.com:
- Dodgers blank the Pirates behind Ross Stripling, trio of homers
- Andrew Toles returns to Triple-A lineup after missing 46 games
- Dodgers 2018 MLB draft tracker
- Caleb Ferguson to join Dodgers for major league debut
- Position players headline Day 2 of the draft for the Dodgers
- Dodgers draft LHP John Rooney in the 3rd round, No. 104 overall
