This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki's Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

There has been plenty of frustration in the past few weeks.

The Phillies have lost 14 of 20 since they swept the Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park last month, although maybe things are turning following Tuesday night’s 6-2 victory at Dodger Stadium. Philadelphia has won two of its past three, and a victory Wednesday night will earn its first series win since the July 11-13 series vs. L.A.

But for nearly four weeks, not much has gone right. The offense has cooled. The rotation has shown cracks, with three of its top six starters (Ranger Suárez, Taijuan Walker and Spencer Turnbull) on the injured list. The bullpen has thrown fewer strikes, causing late-inning leads to be lost.

“How are we going to get through it?” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said before Tuesday’s victory. “We’re going to hit better. We’re going to pitch better. Our defense will play well, which it has, primarily. We’ll run the bases solidly. When you have all of that, you’ll start winning games. When that happens, that will fix it.

“But I have to say, even though every club goes through it, I wouldn’t have anticipated we’d go 5-14 and lose seven series in a row. We’re way too good. We’re way too talented.”

That’s why Dombrowski has never panicked.

“The reason I’m not concerned is that we’re talented, and we’re good,” he said. “I’m somewhat surprised myself. I’m watching MLB Network and they said, ‘Who’s the best club in the National League?’ And today, they’re all saying it’s the Phillies. But you want to see it, so you don’t ever take those things for granted. We can say it all we want, but we’ve got to go out and play better. And I know the players know that, too.

“People keep asking, ‘Well, what’s the story?’ And I don’t think that there’s one answer to it. I think it’s a lot of different things that we’re sort of bursting at the seams in different areas. And that’s why you usually have a bad record. 5-14 is not good. Let’s not sugarcoat it. We’re just leaking in different spots.”

Phillies manager Rob Thomson was asked several times about trying something different to spark a turnaround, everything from doing something wacky on a team flight to a lineup shakeup to a team meeting.

Thomson spoke to his players before Friday’s series opener against the Mariners, although he declined to call it an official team meeting.

But there truly isn’t much to do, other than let his stars work themselves out of it.

Yelling and screaming won’t help. Besides, it’s not Thomson’s style. He wants to be a calm presence in the clubhouse and dugout.

“Everybody has their own style,” Dombrowski said. “I’ve been with managers that aren’t like that during times like this. You’re not going to change a manager’s personality. It works for them. You’re not going to change Rob Thomson’s personality. They have to be themselves, and what they think works for them. Every club is different. Every personality is different. So you’ve just got to figure out -- the front office, the manager, the staff and the players -- how to snap out of it. But usually, I would say ranting and raving is not a way to snap out of it.”

The players on this roster are good at policing themselves, anyway. They’re working behind the scenes to fix things.

This isn’t a matter of laziness or indifference.

In fact, it is probably the opposite.

“There’s frustration, but I think there’s also confidence,” Dombrowski said. “I think it’s really that combination that’s there. Now, the one thing you have to really guard against frustration is guys trying to do too much. It’s not that they’re not working hard. They’re working hard. The issue is that sometimes they’re trying to do too much: swinging at bad pitches, chasing balls out of the zone, not being patient at certain times. And so that’s what you have to fight.”