“We’re a Wild Card team” – Dave Roberts

Everything was going perfectly for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were cruising toward first place in the American League and a first-round bye in the playoffs.

But that's no longer the case. In fact, the two-time defending World Series champions have lost eight of their last ten games and have a record of ten wins and twelve losses in the second half of the season.

And manager Dave Roberts isn't mincing words about his team's situation.

Thinking about it a bit on the plane yesterday, we're a Wild Card team right now. Just saying we're going to turn it around and that we're good isn't enough. Clearly not, given how we've played this past month. So we've put ourselves in this position. We have a lot of talent. But I think, overall, we need to play with more urgency. And our guys know that.

Indeed, that sense of urgency needs to return to Los Angeles, because when you look at the numbers, you realize this isn't just a random midseason losing streak. No, the Dodgers have serious problems right now.

Starting with the mound. During that aforementioned 10-game stretch, the California team's pitchers rank last in FIP and home runs allowed per nine innings and are second-worst in MLB in earned run average. Ouch.

But things aren't much better on the offensive side of the ball. Since July 31, the Dodgers' hitters rank 25th in fWAR and 22nd in on-base percentage. Furthermore, the team's walk rate has plummeted from one of the best in all of Major League Baseball to one of the worst during that same period.

Max Muncy is striking out in nearly half of his at-bats, while Mookie Betts has lost his power and Teoscar Hernandez can't seem to draw a single walk.

Despite all this, no one is worried about the Dodgers' fate, even though they're currently putting themselves in a position where it would be easier to knock them out of the postseason.

Created by humans, assisted by AI.