Major League Baseball’s priciest lineup can rescue a lot of messes, but it can’t erase every one of them. The Dodgers learned that the hard way Tuesday night, when a seven-run deficit turned into a 13-8 loss to St. Louis and a fifth defeat in seven games.
The numbers tell the story quickly enough. Eric Lauer was tagged for seven earned runs in just three innings, and three of the five hits Dodgers relievers allowed also left the yard. By the time the final out landed, Los Angeles had already been forced into a track meet it never should have been running.
That’s the part that should set off alarms. This wasn’t a quiet night where the offense went missing.
The Dodgers actually put up eight runs. Mookie Betts drove in four.
Will Smith, back after nearly three months away, added two more. Shohei Ohtani, Betts, Freddie Freeman and the rest of that group did enough at the plate to win plenty of games.
The problem was everything behind them.
St. Louis made the damage look even uglier with a pair of back-to-back homers from Ramón Urías and Thomas Saggese, a sequence that captured exactly how fast things got away from Los Angeles. When the pitching staff hands over that kind of lead, even a loaded lineup can only do so much.
That matters even more with October getting closer. The Dodgers can still lean on Yoshinobu Yamamoto and newly acquired Tarik Skubal, two starters with the kind of stuff that can take over a postseason game. But playoff series don’t stop at the top of the rotation.
They turn on the next guy. They turn on the fourth starter.
They turn on the night a pitcher is gone by the fourth inning. They turn on whether a bullpen can survive 14 outs against teams like Philadelphia, Milwaukee or Atlanta.
That’s where the concern lives now.
Los Angeles entered Wednesday at 82-56, still a stacked team and still very much in the thick of the race. One bad night against St.
Louis doesn’t make the Dodgers a bad club. But championship teams are measured against the other heavyweights waiting in October, and that’s a different standard entirely.
On offense, the Dodgers look built to chase another World Series. On the mound, the questions are getting harder to ignore.
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Blake Treinen was activated to take Kleins spot, giving the Dodgers another familiar late-inning arm as they sort through October planning. The bigger question now is whether Klein will be available for the postseason at all, and for a team that has leaned on unexpected contributors before, his health suddenly matters just as much as his emergence did. [Read more 🡒]
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Dodgers Left A Rising Outfielder Waiting For One Frustrating Reason
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For a prospect with Tibbs profile, the delay is more frustrating than alarming. He remains one of the organizations more intriguing young outfielders and is still viewed as a player who should get to the majors in the next couple of years, but this first opening never materialized. For now, the Dodgers are prioritizing flexibility over a longer look at a bat that had at least put itself firmly in the discussion. [Read more 🡒]