The Los Angeles Dodgers are in a tailspin.
They wrapped up July with a miserable 8-1 loss to the San Diego Padres. LA is now just 4 1/2 games up on San Diego in the National League West after the Padres took both games of a two-game set to close the month.
Losing both games to an NL West rival shouldn't be the end of the world, but it feels like the sky is falling for the Dodgers. They smoked a 5-0 lead in the first game before getting soundly thumped in the second. The two-game beatdown helped put an exclamation point on a dreadful month for LA.
The Dodgers went 11-13 overall in July. It's the first month they've finished with a losing record since going 11-14 in April of the 2018 season. It's also the first month they've been outscored by their opponents since September of the 2017 campaign. In that September they were outscored 130-108. It was worse this July with opponents outscoring the Dodgers 137-104.
It had been 45 months since the Dodgers were outscored over an entire calendar month. That extremely impressive streak is officially over as the calendar turns to August.
Just switching the page on the calendar won't be enough. LA simply has to start playing better because their schedule doesn't get easier. August features a series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians, Seattle Mariners, and Atlanta Braves. Four of those clubs are division leaders, another is comfortably atop the wild card race two others are pushing for playoff spots. Whatever LA was doing in July isn't going to cut it.
The good news for the Dodgers is their health should begin to improve as Fall approaches. Shortstop Mookie Betts and starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto are both trending toward making their returns. Plus, the Dodgers' new-look lineup and pitching rotation will have a chance to start settling in and making more of an impact than they did the day after the trade deadline.
If LA bounces back with a strong August they'll be comfortably in a contender's seat entering the final month. If they continue this tailspin they may go into September in a fight for the NL West.
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