Dodgers Are Falling Apart — and Dave Roberts Is Done Hiding It
LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers look nothing like the back-to-back juggernaut we watched all summer. And after Sunday’s 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, manager Dave Roberts didn’t just notice — he called it out.
“I say this because it's just been four or five, six weeks of below-average production in our offense. It's just the truth, and I think we just haven't played clean baseball for quite some time, and that speaks to the defense,” Roberts said.
A brutal stretch at the worst time
Milwaukee took three of four in this series. They’re now three games ahead of L.A. in the race for the National League’s best record — and they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker if these teams end up knotted in the standings. That's a big deal for October seeding.
The Dodgers are 5-11 in their last 16 games. They’ve been swept by Boston and the Cubs, and dropped series to Arizona and Milwaukee in that span. Since July 1, the back-to-back champs are 18-21. That’s not a speed bump. That’s a skid with serious smoke coming off it.
No discipline, no intent
Roberts pointed straight at the offense’s approach. “I see our guys, we're chasing off in, chasing away, and I just don't see the consistent plan of attack, 1 through 9.” Translation? Guys are pressing. They're expanding the zone. They’re not winning counts.
Even Shohei Ohtani — the centerpiece of this team — ended the seventh inning by grounding into a rally-killer with runners on first and third. Roberts didn’t name him, but he didn't have to: “I don't think we have that intent, and some guys are scuffling at that with their swings and things like that, which is real. But I think other guys are not valuing every single pitch.”
Defense? A mess too
Tommy Edman’s glove betrayed him twice in the finale. First, he couldn’t cleanly handle Mookie Betts’ throw on a force out that would have ended a bases-loaded inning in the second — allowing the Brewers to push across the opening run. Then in the ninth, he couldn’t field a grounder to turn a double play, and the deficit ballooned to 6-1.
Roberts still believes this group is better than what they’re showing. But he’s not offering empty optimism.
“I don't think that's who we are. I think we've done it long enough, individually, collectively. But I do think that just saying you're going to come out of it isn't the right way to look at it. I think coming out of it is by how you go about it,” Roberts said.
The good news? L.A. still owns a seven-game lead over San Diego in the NL West. They’re also still in the mix with the Brewers and Braves for one of the two spots that skip the wild-card round. But the margin for error is shrinking, and the warning signs are flashing.
“I really wanted to win this game because it could matter, but we didn't,” Roberts said. “So now we got to move forward, but I hope it doesn't come back to bite us.”
It already bit once. The question is whether the Dodgers wake up before it takes a chunk out of October.