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LA Dodgers’ Fall From Grace Raises Some Serious Questions

By Keith Rivas

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The Dodgers and Cardinals seem to be headed in opposite directions — at least for the month of June.

At this point in the 2015 season, both Los Angeles (NL West) and St. Louis (NL Central) lead their respective divisions, but the Cardinals seem more in control of their fate than the Dodgers — and that’s room for concern.

Coming into June, Los Angeles had managed to fend off a crazy run at the division lead by the reigning champion San Francisco but now look like they could fumble that all if they aren’t careful.

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After all, the distance between them and San Francisco is now only half a game — that’s one bad night that could cost you and change everything moving forward.

The distance between St. Louis and number two in the NL Central? Six and a half games.

What we know about the Giants is that they refuse to go down easily, whereas the Dodgers are known, at least in more recent history, for choking when it matters most.

Especially against the Cardinals.

We saw last season that being one of the wild card teams didn’t even phase the Giants en route to their third title in five years — at this point, we can’t exactly say that with confidence about the Dodgers.

This means that winning the division will be crucial for any postseason success this season or in the near future for the boys in blue.

And even then, the road isn’t easy.

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    • Being one of the division winners means a highly likely encounter with the St. Louis Cardinals at some point in September or October before even getting into the serious World Series conversation.

    It’s one thing to be intimidated by another opponent because of how good they are, but the Cardinals have done more than that when it comes to playoff baseball.

    To be honest, they’ve owned the Dodgers.

    Of the six playoff appearances by the Dodgers since 2004, three of their exits have been because of St. Louis, including the last two seasons that ended at the hands of the Cardinals.

    That’s never good news, no matter who you are.

    Baseball is a game where yes, anything can happen, but often times the history of a team speaks for itself.

    One of the biggest playoff demons that the Dodgers will have to find a way to handle or corral in one way or another is that of  their Cy Young and NL MVP-winning pitcher Clayton Kershaw.

    Bottom Line: It’s now or never for the Dodgers

    After last season’s fallout, Kershaw officially became 3-7 in his career against the Cardinals.

    A losing record beyond losing record is what we can gather from that stat, and it’s too hard to say at this point whether all the hype and talk will affect Kershaw moving forward, especially in the playoffs.

    Because if he can’t handle St. Louis, the Dodgers won’t be seeing much life after game 162.

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