Two games in and the Dodgers’ biggest weakness has been showcased

The Los Angeles Dodgers start the 2018 MLB with a 0-2 record, scoring zero runs in the process. Thus, the biggest hole on the Dodgers has been exposed.

It is not time to panic, at least not yet. The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped the first two games of the season by a combined 0-2 score. The San Francisco Giants won both games off of solo home runs from Joe Panik; both off of two of baseball’s most dominant pitchers, Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen.

The pitching was fantastic. While Clayton Kershaw was knocked around early, he settled in, only allowing the one run over six innings of work. Alex Wood was even more dominant, allowing just one hit over eight frames.

It has been the offense that is concerning Dodger fans. Los Angeles has just seven hits over 18 innings of offense, two of which came from Kershaw. Johnny Cueto took a perfect game into the seventh inning before Chris Taylor lightly plopped one into right center. Realistically, the Dodgers deserved to be no-hit on Friday night.

We are just two games into the season, though. With 160 left to play, the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to be just fine. They are far too talented not to be. The pitching has been great and the offense should come around.

Hopefully.

The Dodgers’ first two losses of the season perfectly encapsulate what the biggest flaw, and strength, of this team is. It is the momentum, the rallies. This team relies on rallies perhaps more than any other team.

When the offense is clicking, it is hard to stop them. That is what carried the Dodgers into the World Series last year unscathed. It is the same thing that ultimately cost them four games in the World Series.

Without Justin Turner, the Dodgers are missing a huge component of the offense; a hitter with a respectable two-strike approach. The rest of the Dodgers have not necessarily mastered that, evident from the 18 strikeouts over the two games.

Los Angeles was — and has been — a pitching juggernaut. That is what has made them so successful over the course of the last five seasons. What made 2017 a 104-win season though was the Dodgers’ ability to rally out of nothing. Hitting is contagious, ya know, and no team showcased that more than the Dodgers.

However, that same momentum impacts the team in a negative way. Whether it is a psychological thing or a mere coincidence when one star struggles the rest of the team often struggles. That is why the Dodgers can go from scoring 12 runs to three and then to one.

That is how a team that was threatening to break the MLB regular season wins record suddenly loses 11 in a row.

They rely too heavily on that momentum.

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It would make more sense for the Dodgers to spend more time trying to manufacture runs. Chris Taylor finally broke up Cueto’s perfect game in the seventh inning with no outs, leading way for Corey Seager, Yasiel Puig and Cody Bellinger.

And I get it, Corey Seager is a phenomenal hitter. However, with the score being 0-0 and Alex Wood dealing, why wouldn’t the Dodgers ask Seager to lay down a bunt and get Taylor over for the meat of the order? That is traditionally the role of the two-hitter; and while that role has been redefined in recent years, that situation outlined perfectly why the two-hitter has that role.

If the Dodgers want Seager to be a run-producer, move him to the third spot in the order while Turner is out. Slot someone like Yasiel Puig there that can get on base but can also sacrifice himself with a bunt.

Instead, Seager grounded into a double play. Hindsight is always 20-20, and I hate using it so often, but I never see the Dodgers manufacture runs. It seems to always be all or nothing. So far, that has hurt the team.

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It is not the end of the world and the Dodgers are going to turn it around. It is silly to gauge the entire season on two games. However, the same problems that held the Dodgers back in 2017 have obviously carried over into 2018.