Los Angeles Dodgers: Is It Time To Panic for the Boys in Blue?

After two rough outings in Phoenix, the defending NL West Champion Los Angeles Dodgers have fallen to 8-10. Is it time to panic in LA?

The baseball season isn’t even a month old and the sound of panic coming from Dodger Town are starting to get loud. The Los Angeles Dodgers were picked by some media outlets to get to or win that elusive World Series, ending a 29-year drought. With a big money advantage, roster depth, and burgeoning set of stars down on the farm, it was easy to pick the Dodgers this year.

But three weeks have passed and the realities of an unpredictable baseball season are starting to show. The Dodgers are 8-10 so far, the injuries that plagued them last year have come back again, they still can’t hit left-handed pitching. The Dodgers seem to lack a sense of urgency on the field.

When the Dodgers re-signed Rich Hill he was supposed to give the team a significant one-two punch with ace Clayton Kershaw. But after an impressive first start the blister on his middle finger that put him on the disbled list last year came back. Hill has only made one truncated start since he was put on the 10 day DL again because of that same blister.

Having Hill on the DL means once again the Dodgers have tried to create a starting staff out of bit players and guys coming back from injury. Much like last year, it hasn’t really translated to success.

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Other than Kershaw the only starter to go past six innings has been starter Brandon McCarthy. While the other starters average 4 1/3 innings per start meaning the offense is usually playing catch up.

The best strategy to beat the Dodgers this year has been to stack up left-handed starters to face them. Like last year it’s working, the Dodgers are only 3-6 when facing left-handed starters and pitchers have 2.20 ERA against them compared to 5.50 ERA for right-handers.

Part of the problem is that a player the Dodgers traded for to hit righties, second baseman Logan Forsythe is already on the DL after getting hit by a pitch on his toe. The other Dodgers starters who hit right handed all have careers where they hit left-handed pitching worse than right-handed pitching.

Does all of this mean it’s time to start panicking, if you follow Dodgers fans in social media then it’s probably too late for that. But I’m here to tell you there’s no need for panicking. Despite their current struggles, remember this is the same Dodgers team that came back from an 8 game deficit last year to win their fourth consecutive West division pennant.

This same beat up Los Angeles Dodgers team also came back from a 2-1 deficit in the NLDS to beat the Washington Nationals, it is far too early to panic.

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This is a resilient team being managed by a level headed manager in Dave Roberts, they take one at-bat at a time, one game at a time, they know how to win. This baseball it’s not a sprint it’s a marathon, so don’t panic in April; leave that to October.

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