Column: Dodgers collapsing for second straight postseason? Unbelievably, believe it
Two straight collapses, two straight years, too much to believe?
No, it’s happening. It’s really happening.
Debacle times two. Disaster squared.
Remember that first-round playoff wreck against the San Diego Padres last season? After a wretched Monday night at Chavez Ravine, these Dodgers are unbelievably careening toward the same inconceivable ditch.
Bobby Miller struggles, and Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman fail to deliver in the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 2 of the NLDS.
A week after the end of another magical regular season, the unfathomable underachieving Dodgers are on the brink of another epic fail after suffering a second consecutive defeat to the Arizona Diamondbacks in their best-of-five National League Division Series.
Two days after being blown out in the opener, they lost 4-2 in Game 2 to fall behind two games to none with the next two games in Arizona and sordid history working against them.
Visiting teams that win the first two games in a five-game series are 28-3 in the series. Considering the Dodgers’ starting pitching is in tatters and their best hitters have disappeared, it is difficult to imagine them overcoming those odds.
It becomes even more difficult when one realizes their Game 3 starting pitcher is Lance Lynn, their season now resting on the shaky shoulders of a pitcher who led all of the majors in home runs allowed.
“It’s two games, but our backs are against the wall,” said manager Dave Roberts. “We’ve got to make some type of adjustments, and we have no more margin.”
While last year’s division series collapse against the Padres was legendary because San Diego finished 22 games behind them in the regular season, an unexpected series defeat this October would be nearly as bad.
This is, after all, the first postseason series in major league history where a team with a 200-plus run differential faced a team with a negative run differential.
This space figured the Dodgers would sweep the Diamondbacks in three games, but that was before Clayton Kershaw crumbled in the opener and rookie Bobby Miller followed that opening act by pitching nearly as poorly Monday night.
Miller lasted only 1 ⅔ innings, allowing three runs on four hits before surrendering the ball to the bullpen, which performed admirably but couldn’t overcome another wretched pressure performance by the offense.
In two games, top-of-the-order stars Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman are a combined one for 13 with that one hit being an infield grounder.
That’s pretty much all you need to know.
“There’s certainly fight, there always has been,” said Roberts. “But it comes down to results, too.”
Fight? More like, two first-round knockouts against a knock-kneed opponent.
The latest embarrassment ended just after the Dodgers’ Kolten Wong came to the plate with two out in the ninth amid the strains of, “Don’t worry about a thing…” wafting through the stadium speakers.
Worry, Dodgers fans. Worry a ton. Wong flew out and his teammates trudged through the back of the dugout as if in a trance.
This is bad. This being the ugliest of encores, it’s worse than bad.
“We’ve won three games in a row … we’ve got to find a way to flip the script,” Roberts said.
Before the game, Max Muncy claimed that the Dodgers had already moved past a stunning Game 1 loss in which Kershaw only recorded one out in suffering through the worst outing of his career.
“Obviously it was a really bad game and it sucked and it wasn’t very fun being out there,” Muncy said. “But at the same time it doesn’t matter how many runs they score; it’s only one loss or one win. So for us it’s over. It’s a 0-0 game today.”
It didn’t seem that way. In collecting only six hits against five Diamondbacks pitchers while being unable to overcome a first-inning, three-run deficit, the Dodgers played as if still in shock.
“It certainly helps when you score six in the first and three in the first to feel better about yourself, obviously,” said Arizona closer Paul Sewald. “It’s easy to play downhill. It’s a lot harder to play uphill. So scoring in the first is huge especially with 60,000 people here and kind of calming them down a bit.”
One more loss — Game 3 is in Arizona on Wednesday — and the Dodgers will really be in shock.
“Obviously we’re all frustrated but there’s nothing we can do now,” said Betts. “We have to focus on the next game.”
But focus has been the problem. In both games they’ve fallen behind so quickly, and so startlingly, they seem to have lost all concentration.
This one started, and essentially ended, with Miller, who came into the game with such high hopes, the 11-4 record, the 3.76 ERA, the 100-mph fastball.
The kid had become the ace, and the Dodgers were hoping he could pitch like it.
“I trust Bobby,” Roberts said before the game. “I expect him to take down a lot of outs tonight and then we’ll see where we go from there.”
One problem. He is still a kid. He’s 24, and was pitching in his first postseason game.
“This is going to be his biggest challenge, his biggest test that he’s ever had,” said Roberts.
Mookie Betts has been ineffective for the Dodgers against the Diamondbacks in the NLDS, and almost seems like he doesn’t know how to fix the problem.
And, sure enough, painfully enough, Miller flunked, giving up three runs in the first inning and continuing to struggle before being removed with two out in the second.
The Diamondbacks led off the game with a walk, a bunt single, then a line drive single to load the bases. Christian Walker drove in a run with an RBI flyout, then the speedy Diamondbacks stole a run when Tommy Pham swiped second and kept them out of a double play to set up Gabriel Moreno’s RBI groundout.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. completed the first inning scoring with an RBI single. By the time Miller returned to the dugout, he had already thrown 32 pitches and looked lost.
When he allowed two of the first four batters to reach base in the second, Roberts had seen enough and pulled him for Brusdar Graterol, who ended the inning cleanly.
Graterol retired the first six batters he faced, and the three Dodgers relievers that followed him allowed just one more run combined.
But the offense continually failed, putting runners on base in four of the last five innings but failing to score all but one of them.
Two runners on base in the fifth and Betts quickly hits into a force out and Freeman strikes out.
The Oakland Athletics are trying to move to Las Vegas, but they might have difficulty attracting fans in an area seemingly dominated by Dodgers supporters.
Bases loaded with one out in the sixth and the next three Dodgers hitters plate only one run on a Kiké Hernández infield single.
Runners on base in each of the seventh and eighth inning yet Freeman and Chris Taylor both ground into double plays.
“The fifth and sixth innings, I think a lot of us aren’t gonna be able to sleep tonight,” said Freeman.
One more game like this and they can all snooze until February.
Unbelievable.
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