Dodgers mired in tough stretch: 'It's not pretty'

LOS ANGELES -- Thursday afternoon began with the Dodgers rolling out a big American flag in center field, paired with a solid rendition of the national anthem. A sold-out crowd celebrating the Fourth of July holiday at Dodger Stadium had big-game energy leading up to first pitch.

Unfortunately for everyone in attendance, that was about where the cheering ended as the Dodgers dropped the three-game series to the D-backs following a blowout 9-3 loss at Dodger Stadium.

"It’s not pretty,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts when asked about the team’s play over the last week.

The D-backs didn’t waste any time to put the Dodgers behind, something that has happened more often than not over the last couple of weeks. Landon Knack, who had been solid in his first six Major League starts, allowed a two-out solo homer to Joc Pederson to get the scoring started.

Four pitches later, Christian Walker continued his dominance at Dodger Stadium with a solo homer of his own. In the third, Walker added a two-run homer to give the D-backs a four-run lead.

No player in the Majors dominates the Dodgers quite like Walker, especially at Chavez Ravine. Arizona's slugger has 19 homers in his first 42 career games at Dodger Stadium, tied for the most by any visiting player in the history of the building. All 19 of those have come since 2018, eight more than any other visiting player at Dodger Stadium during that span.

The dominance has become so absurd that some in the crowd gave a mini standing ovation when the Dodgers decided to intentionally walk the first baseman in the fifth.

"When we’re living it, it digs a little deeper,” Roberts said. “We just don’t make good pitches against him, that’s just the bottom line. You hang a changeup or a fastball middle-middle, he’s going to do that and obviously he feels really comfortable in the box against us."

While the Dodgers’ offense was held quiet for most of the night, they witnessed another subpar outing from a Los Angeles starter. Since June 16, the first game after Yoshinobu Yamamoto went down with a right shoulder injury, Dodgers starters have a 4.85 ERA -- 20th in the Majors in that span.

"I think it starts with starting pitching, it does,” Roberts said. "To go out there and play from behind is hard. To not get length makes it a little more taxing on the bullpen. Tomorrow we have [Tyler Glasnow] and it’s going to be a big series [against the Brewers]. We have a stable of guys ready in victory formation, so we need a big one out of Glas tomorrow."

While Roberts tried to simplify some of the Dodgers’ struggles, the reality is the club has struggled as of late. They are 22-18 in their last 40 games, which is still better than most teams. But when you have the expectations and the talent the Dodgers have -- even with the flurry of injuries the club is currently dealing with, especially Mookie Betts -- it’s always surprising for them to be hovering around a .500 record at any point in a season.

"I do try my best to keep it real, but there have been times baseball-wise where we could probably make a better baseball play and better baseball decisions,” said outfielder Jason Heyward, who left the game with a left knee injury and will get an MRI on Friday. “But that also comes from wanting to do too much and trying to get everything back on one play or two plays, and that’s natural.

"You still have to go through these things throughout the regular season to figure out where you have to make adjustments and also how to play through it. But all in all, I think we’ve been doing a great job of playing through the things we’ve been dealing with as a group.”

With shaky play recently, the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West has been reduced to 6 1/2 games, which still puts them in good shape. However, they only have a one-game lead over the NL Central-leading Brewers for what would be the No. 2 seed in the postseason and a first-round bye.

There’s a long way to go before all of that matters.

Right now, the Dodgers need to play better, and on Thursday, the early cheers turned into late boos, yet another reminder of the ups and downs of a baseball season.