LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts struggles to begin his answer, a reflection of his reluctance to give voice to his own diagnosis.
“I just think we didn’t, we haven’t – I just don’t think we’ve put in the focus,” he said. “To be quite honest, I just don’t think we had the urgency or focus that we needed to have. That’s just the bottom line – because when the standings started to get interesting then our guys certainly have ramped up their quality of at-bat. The offensive performance has ticked up.
“It’s not something I like saying. But I just don’t see any other reason – given the talent we have – why we have been a bottom-five offense for two months. For our talent, that’s just inexcusable.”
Bottom five is only a slight exaggeration. But the fall has been precipitous.
When games ended on June 30, the Dodgers had the top offense in MLB. They led in every major category through their first 85 games – runs scored (477), batting average (.263), on-base percentage (.338), slugging percentage (.460) and, naturally, OPS (.798).
In 42 games from July 4 through their loss in San Diego last Saturday – as they blew a nine-game lead in the NL West – the Dodgers ranked 25th in runs scored (174), 27th in batting average (.233), 16th in on-base percentage (.313), 23rd in slugging percentage (.392) and OPS (.706).
“I can’t answer that question,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said when asked to explain the nearly two-month freefall. “I see everything in greys and very few extremes. Therefore, I rarely say anything is definitively 100% one thing or the other.
“But going into the season, I would have said that was impossible. I was wrong.”
Analyzing the team-wide slump in real time, Friedman said two things stood out. The team’s hitting with runners in scoring position which was extraordinarily successful early in the season course-corrected – not surprising, he said, because hitting with RISP is always “lumpy” over the course of a season. But during the slump, the Dodgers were also 30th in baseball at “making contact with velocity in the (strike) zone.”
“That’s a tough way to hit,” Friedman said, and went against the historical tendencies of most Dodgers hitters.
Friedman turns to one of his frequent phrases to explain the convergence of factors that dragged the Dodgers’ offense down – “an imperfect storm.” Told of Roberts’ analysis – that a form of complacency had settled into the defending champions – Friedman doesn’t disagree.
“Obviously, he’s closer to it,” Friedman said. “I think any time you’re not hitting, it’s going to look like there’s a lack of urgency. Sometimes there’s some truth to that.
“But there is no doubt that for a six-, seven-, eight-week period we were underperforming our offensive talent.”
That has been true of some individual players both before and after the two-month slump.
Michael Conforto hit .173 with a .602 OPS through the end of June. He has improved to .225 and .681 since the start of July but is still contributing far less than the Dodgers expected when they signed him last winter. Mookie Betts was having the worst season of his career through the end of June (.249 and .707) and still is (.244 and .674 since).
Others reflected the midseason swoon. Will Smith was hitting .318 with a .945 OPS at the end of June but has hit .254 with an .814 OPS since the start of July. Teoscar Hernandez got off to a great start this season but has been unable to recapture that since a mid-May groin muscle injury. He has hit .230 with a .685 OPS during the team-wide slump. The same has been true of Tommy Edman, who is back on the injured list with a persistent ankle injury. He hit .171 with a .504 OPS in limited playing time over the past two months.
Opportunities have been given to role players. But Miguel Rojas, Alex Call (acquired at the trade deadline), Alex Freeland (promoted from Triple-A at the end of July) and Buddy Kennedy (designated for assignment and released this week) have hit a combined .225 in July and August.
“I think there’s a lot of variance. It’s a long season,” Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said. “Teams go through ups and downs. There are ebbs and flows. That’s probably most of it. Obviously, we had some guys go down.”
One player, in particular, has been missed. Call it ‘The Max Muncy Effect.’
The Dodgers’ offensive downturn seemed to begin when Muncy was sidelined by a knee injury on July 2. He returned for eight games in August before suffering an oblique injury. During those eight games, the Dodgers were once again a top-eight offense in most categories.
A similar pattern played out last year when Muncy was sidelined for three months by a rib injury, leaving a hole in the Dodgers’ lineup. It does nothing for Muncy’s self-esteem to see the Dodgers’ offense struggle without him.
“If anything, I feel anger and disappointment in myself that I’m not out there to help. … You feel you’re letting the guys down by not being out there,” the third baseman said.
“I think the one thing that I always attribute it to is when I’m in there it allows everyone to be themselves. You don’t have to have a guy try to have an at-bat like I usually have. I know I hit home runs and I have some power, but the big thing that I do is I make the pitcher work. I make him throw a lot of pitches, I make him get stressed out there on the mound. Sure, I may not always get a hit. I don’t hit for a high average. But I get on base a ton. I create traffic on the bases. It’s something that causes stress for the pitcher. It causes them to sweat more, to work more. … And when he gets through me, he takes that breath of fresh air and that next guy doesn’t have to worry about ‘I need to see some pitches.’ He can just be aggressive or do what he does.”
Muncy is expected to return sometime next week. Kiké Hernandez has already returned after missing nearly two months with an elbow injury. Edman should be back in early September. Getting players back after extended absences can address the lack of urgency, Roberts said.
“Missing time makes you miss it,” Roberts said. “You’re adding that infusion of somebody that missed it. … That also helps the focus and the energy too.”
The Dodgers are counting on that. With a month to go in the regular season, “the challenge is to match our opponents’ hunger and urgency,” Roberts said, “I think that’s attainable.”
During their four-game winning streak (their first since June 29-July 3), the Dodgers’ offense has rebounded, scoring 26 runs, hitting nine home runs and posting an .885 OPS. That is more like the production they expect going forward.
“Looking back, it’s been very frustrating and confounding,” Friedman said. “Looking forward, I just can’t believe that it will repeat, for a team with this offensive talent, for any kind of extended stretch.
“It happened. But I would bet on the floor for this offense to be top third (in MLB) rather than bottom six.”
UP NEXT
Diamondbacks (RHP Zac Gallen, 9-13, 5.13 ERA) at Dodgers (LHP Blake Snell, 3-2, 1.97 ERA), Friday, 7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
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