Dodgers Week 21: Not good enough

The Dodgers technically had a winning week, but did so in such underwhelming fashion thanks to an offense that hasn’t pulled its weight for nearly two months.

Los Angeles scored six and five runs in the first two games of their sweep of the last-place Kansas City Royals, needing a 10th inning on Tuesday to get the fifth run across. The Dodgers topped out at four runs for the rest of the week, including in dropping three of four games to the best-in-NL Milwaukee Brewers.

The Dodgers averaged under four runs per game last week, and they’ve averaged just 3.33 runs through 15 games in August. It’s no wonder they are just 5-10 during that time. The offense has been similarly underwhelming dating all the way back to July 1, averaging just 397 runs per game since then, 22nd in MLB, with a 91 wRC+ that ranks 22nd.

The starting pitching was perfectly fine and downright stable last week, with six starts of at least six innings and a collective 3.05 ERA. The only start under six innings was on Monday by Tarik Skubal, who said Sunday of his three starts with the Dodgers, “It’s not acceptable, it’s not the standard of what I think I’m capable of in this league. I just need to be better.”

The Dodgers might have gotten out of the week at 5-2 and a series split with the Brewers — which would have also secured the season series with Milwaukee and a potential tiebreaker — were it not for Edwin Díaz’s blown save on Thursday.

But they simply aren’t playing well enough and aren’t scoring enough runs to give them any margin of error. They’ve got six more weeks to figure that out or else they might have more free time in October than they planned.

The problem is every Dodgers game is close, except when they get blown out. On the season the Dodgers have 27 blowout wins, victories with a margin of at least five runs, only one fewer than the Chicago Cubs for most in MLB. But only one of those blowout wins have come since July 3. During that time, all 29 other MLB teams have multiple such wins, with an average of five per team other than the one paltry victory in the last 37 games for the Dodgers, who have lost five blowouts during that span.

Great teams blow out other teams. The Dodgers haven’t been great in nearly two months. At 18-21 since the start of July, they haven’t even been good.

Batter of the week

Max Muncy was opportunistic with his hits last week, driving in eight runs. His three-run double turned around Monday’s game, then he delivered the walk-off single on Tuesday. His pinch-hit home run on Thursday was his 131st career at Dodger Stadium, breaking Eric Karros’s regular season record in the 65-year history of the ballpark. Muncy also homered on Sunday to tie the game.

Kudos as well to Mookie Betts, who homered twice, doubled twice, and led the team with eight hits.

Pitcher of the week

Blake Snell returned after three months on the injured list and was much better than expected right out of the gate, with 10 strikeouts in six innings while allowing just one run. If you’re looking for potential positives heading into October, having a healthy Snell thriving is near the top of the wish list.

Week 21 results

4-3 record
25 runs scored (3.57 per game)
27 runs allowed (3.86 per game)
.465 pythagorean win percentage

Year to date

74-51 record
616 runs scored (4.93 per game)
480 runs allowed (3.84 per game)
.612 pythagorean win percentage (77-48)

Miscellany

Full game a long time coming: After being sidelined for most of the previous two seasons while battling cancer and a debilitating back injury, Charley Steiner has enjoyed a pleasant return to the Dodgers radio booth this season. He started out calling the first game of each home series, and has occasionally increased to every other day on some homestands. In the early part of the season, Steiner would call the first three innings of the game before gradually increasing to six innings for the last five weeks or so. But on Saturday against the Brewers, Steiner called the entire game, all nine innings. As Steiner gleefully shared before the game, this was his first full game in the booth since the 2023 NLDS. To date, Steiner has called 25 home games this season. Here’s to as many more as his health will allow.

Opportunistic running: Shohei Ohtani singled in the seventh inning on Monday night against Kansas City, then stole second with Andy Pages at the plate, the first steal for Ohtani since May 16, then scored the winning run on Freddie Freeman’s single. Ohtani went 67 games in between stolen bases, and he only attempted one steal in the 62 games leading up to Monday’s swipe, understandable he’s been dealing with left knee inflammation since June that’s kept him off the mound since July 3.

New ‘Legend’ welcomed: On Saturday, outfielder Reggie Smith was inducted into the Legends of Dodger Baseball. The switch-hitting, seven-time All-Star won three pennants in Los Angeles and finished fourth in National League MVP voting in his first two full years with the Dodgers. “There’s nothing he couldn’t do on a baseball field,” Dusty Baker said of Smith during the ceremony.

Multi-position man: On Thursday against Milwaukee, Kiké Hernández started at third base, moved to second base in the seventh inning, then moved to left field in the eighth. It’s just the fourth game in Dodgers history that someone played those three positions in the same game, joining Howie Kendrick (twice in 2016) and Chris Taylor (2024).

Transactions

aka the regular Jonathan Hernández and Charlie Barnes section

Monday: Right-hander Seth Halvorsen was called up to make his Dodgers debut, and Charlie Barnes was called back up. Kyle Hurt was optioned and Jonathan Hernández was designated for assignment.

Tuesday: Three months after left elbow surgery, Blake Snell was activated off the 60-day injured list. Barnes was optioned, and Blake Treinen was moved to the 60-day injured list.

Wednesday: Landon Knackwas called up, and Halvorsen was optioned.

Thursday: After an eight-out, bullpen-resetting save, Knack was optioned. Hernández, who cleared waivers, was sent outright to Triple-A and elected free agency, signed a new deal with the Dodgers and was added back to the roster. Barnes was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster.

Sunday: Justin Wrobleski got a rest in the form of forearm inflammation, and Hurt got called back from Oklahoma City.

Game results

• Monday: Dodgers 6, Royals 5
• Tuesday: Dodgers 5, Royals 4 (10 innings)
• Wednesday: Dodgers 4, Royals 2
• Thursday: Brewers 5, Dodgers 4
• Friday: Dodgers 3, Brewers 1
• Saturday: Brewers 4, Dodgers 1
• Sunday: Brewers 6, Dodgers 2

Previous reviews: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11| Week 12 | Week 13 | no reviews for Weeks 14-15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20

Up next

The Dodgers run the Corey Dickerson gauntlet, going back on the road briefly to Coors Field to finish their 13 game days in a row, then return home for an equally-short homestand, hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates next weekend. Saturday’s game is another exclusive Fox telecast recently added to the network’s schedule.