With broken bats, broken arms, bad at-bats, and bad pitching, the Dodgers find themselves in a rut heading into the home stretch. (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
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The Los Angeles Dodgers have won the last two World Series. In 2024, they took advantage of a clutch Freddie Freeman grand slam in Game 1 and the Yankees’ faulty defense in Game 5 to win it all. Last year they hopped on the back of Yoshinobu Yamamoto to take Games 6 and 7 in Toronto to win an instant classic.
With the addition of Kyle Tucker in the off-season for a record $60 million per year (for four years) and closer Edwin Díaz (three years, $69 million) many believed that the team was unstoppable and effectively broke baseball. That idea was only bolstered when they traded for back-to-back American League Cy Young Award-winner Tarik Skubal at the deadline.
But with the dog days of August in the rearview mirror, and with September now upon us, the Dodgers have proven themselves to be eminently beatable. Sure, they have a 9.5 game lead in the National League West and have a 100% chance to make the playoffs (per FanGraphs), but they don’t have the best record in either league, meaning that the Milwaukee Brewers would (again) have homefield advantage against Los Angeles if they meet in the playoffs, as would the Tampa Bay Rays if they meet in the Fall Classic. And the Dodgers just sit half a game ahead of the Atlanta Braves for the second-best record in the National League.
The Dodgers’ pitching – despite having nearly their entire starting rotation on the injured list at one time or another, and despite sending River Ryan to Detroit in the aforementioned deal for Skubal, and despite Díaz having pitched just 13-2/3 innings – has been their strong suit. Through August, Los Angeles had the fifth best team ERA (3.62), but among those ahead of them are those Brewers and Braves. They have given up the fourth fewest earned runs (but, again, ahead of them are the Braves and Brewers). This theme holds across nearly all pitching categories.
Where the trouble lies with this club is with the offense. Entering Tuesday night, the Dodgers are second in the league in team batting (.258), third in the league with a .335 on-base percentage, and fourth in the league with 670 runs scored. And they are doing this with nearly everyone in their lineup having seasons below their career averages, and with the team as a whole swinging pool noodles over the past month.
The team hit .241 in August; their .689 OPS was 22nd in the league for the month; and their .378 slugging percentage was 23rd. No one seems to be hitting:
Shohei Ohtani
In Ohtani’s last 15 games entering September, he slashed .197/.280/.426, with three homers (two in one game) and six RBI. On Tuesday night, he went 1-for-2 with a soft single (78-mph off the bat) in the fifth inning.
Freddie Freeman
Freeman is a generational hitter who could roll out of bed and slap two balls to left. But he last left the yard on July 4th – 47 games ago. Since then, he is hitting a solid .318, but is only slugging .375 with ten doubles. Some in the Los Angeles media wonder if Freeman is injured, but you will never hear that from the first baseman, who posts each and every day.
Mookie Betts
In August of last season, Betts decided that his year was lost from a statistical perspective, so he just did whatever he could to help the team win. This year has been worse (.258/.326/.406 in 2025 vs. .239/.298/.404 in 2026). The converted shortstop hit two home runs on July 20th, and just three in the 36 games since. On Tuesday night he got a gift in the third inning when his bloop to no man’s land in right slipped out of Jordan Walker’s glove for a bases clearing three-run double. His double in the fifth inning was much cleaner, leaving the bat at 85-mph down the left field line.
Kyle Tucker
Kyle Tucker has had way more bad at-bats than good ones this year, especially at Dodger Stadium. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)
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The less said about Tucker’s season the better. For the year he is slashing .227/.325/.355. In August he hit two home runs and drove in a total of six. At home he is below the Mendoza line (.189) and is slugging less than .300 (.267). He has hit a total of two home runs at Dodger Stadium all year. And those stats were before his 0-for-3 on Tuesday night.
Teoscar Hernández
The Dodgers’ left fielder is slashing .249/.312/.395 for the season. Last month he hit three homers but had a 22-game drought between round trippers. He had eight RBI for the month and has found himself moved down to eight-hole in the lineup. Hernández is capable of carrying the team if and when he gets hot. Unfortunately, he has not been hot since May, and is not giving the club the production they need from one of their corner outfielders (especially when the other corner outfielder is not hitting). He did have a hard-hit single on Tuesday night.
Max Muncy
Muncy was an All-Star this year on the back of his 17 home runs and .488 slugging percentage in the first half. While he is still hitting some homers (nine over July and August), he is hitting just .225 on that span. He went 0-for-3 with another strikeout on Tuesday night.
September
Maybe things are looking up in September, as the Dodgers mustered eight runs on nine hits in their series opener against the Cardinals. This is an improvement on their average of 3.85 runs per game during August.
But before you can get too excited, September started with an absolute stinker of a pitching performance. The visiting Cardinals put up thirteen runs (on 13 hits, five of which left the yard). In baseball parlance, this is one the Dodgers just need to wash and get back at it on Wednesday, as they hope to put together a string of solid games on both sides of the ball.
A drop here, the width of a cleat there, and the Dodgers win neither of their previous two World Series. It stands to reason that they will need to play even better – and considerably better than they are playing right now – if they want to become the first National League team to win a three in a row.
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