Dodgers wasting perfect opportunities to re-take NL West

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like the Dodgers would never break out of the standings limbo.

The team would win a game but before their fans had the chance to celebrate properly, they would look up to the scoreboard to see the Giants walking away victorious from their own contest. 

They just couldn’t gain any ground on a team playing at a stratospheric level for most of the year, with no signs of coming down anytime soon either.

Added frustration came with the fact that the Dodgers’ record was perfectly on track with its the previous three years that saw them produce NL West Division titles.

What more could they do?

But then the MLB All-Star Break came and went and with it seemed to go the Giants’ mojo.

Dodgers fans, on the heels of the news that they may have seen the last of Clayton Kershaw for the season, have found something to cheer about — that they can regain the NL West lead sooner than most thought possible and without their MVP front-runner.

Then Cardinals second baseman Jedd Gyorko, the last hitter set for Jansen to retire, stepped up to the plate and sailed a long one into the stands at Busch Stadium on the first pitch by the closer.

Gyorko tied the game at 3-3, a stalemate that would last 7 more innings until Matt Adams blasted another home run in the 16th inning to give St. Louis the 4-3 victory.

It’s a different kind of frustration for Dodgers fans, then.

The team that dismantled the unbeaten Stephen Strasburg just a few days prior and the team that, despite its rampant injuries throughout the season, has kept pace with the second-best team in baseball has not made more of its opportunities to retake the NL West lead.

During the Giants’ losing streak, the Dodgers have lost three one-run games, two of which went into extra innings as a result of a blown save by Jansen.

But one would be remiss to blame those two losses solely on Jansen. 

Despite the bright spots throughout Friday night, including Corey Seager’s four-hit night return and the continued hot streaks of Justin Turner and Howie Kendrick, the Dodgers simply did, and have not, finished the job when they needed to.

In the series opener, the team went 1-for-13 with RISP and left 13 men on the bases. The night would be indicative of the season’s success with RISP as a whole.

Not only do the Dodgers sit in the bottom half of batting average with RISP among all teams, it now ranks 29th in coming through with men on the bases on two outs recorded.

“I think it’s just guys trying to do too much, and getting out of their approaches,” Manager Dave Roberts told the LA Times.

It’s the kind of clutch hitting that we have seen throughout the season.

Take Trayce Thompson‘s two walk-off home runs this season. Or Yasiel Puig‘s memorable walk-off little league home run in the prior series against the Washington Nationals.

It’s moments like these that show the team isn’t lacking in ability, but consistency. Whether they can find it now before the Giants regain their old form is the real issue.

The Dodgers go into Saturday for their second game of the series against the Cardinals hoping to establish such consistency that could just be the single key to their return to the top of the division.

And hopefully, come September, Dodgers fans won’t find themselves looking back on certain games, innings, or even at bats wondering what could have been had the results been slightly different.