{"id":174077,"date":"2025-08-25T10:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174077\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T10:22:12","slug":"repeat-champions-or-october-duds-dodgers-fighting-identity-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/174077\/","title":{"rendered":"Repeat champions or October duds? Dodgers fighting identity crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN DIEGO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When he was finished rounding the bases at Petco Park on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani<\/a> made a detour on his return to the Dodgers\u2019<\/a> bench.<\/p>\n

Seated by the visiting dugout was a fan in a San Diego Padres cap and brown Fernando Tatis Jr. jersey. The spectator had spent most of the afternoon reminding Ohtani of how much he\u2019d stunk in the three-game series.<\/p>\n

Ohtani initiated a high-five with his tormentor<\/a>, who playfully bowed in deference.<\/p>\n

Manager Dave Roberts<\/a> howled with delight. Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> showered Ohtani with sunflower seeds.<\/p>\n

These were like scenes from the good old days, the Dodgers hitting bombs and laughing as they celebrated.<\/p>\n

But was this a mirage?<\/p>\n

Even after avoiding a sweep by the Padres with an 8-2 victory<\/a>, even after moving back into a tie with them for the lead in the National League West, the Dodgers continued to be an enigma.<\/p>\n

Who were they? The team that trampled the Padres in the series finale? Or the team that rolled over in the two previous games of the series?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re gettable,\u201d said a scout from a rival NL team who was in attendance.<\/p>\n

The kind of game the Dodgers played on Sunday, however, prompted the same scout to attach this qualifier: They can\u2019t be counted out.<\/p>\n

One of baseball\u2019s worst offensive teams over the last two months, the Dodgers blasted four home runs, including two by Freddie Freeman<\/a>. The Dodgers claimed the lead on a three-run blast in the seventh inning by Dalton Rushing.<\/p>\n

Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a> did his part on the mound, picking up his 11th win by limiting the Padres to two runs over six innings.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers have 31 games remaining in the regular season and they expect a number of their injured players to return over that period. The form they take will dramatically affect their chances in October.<\/p>\n

\"Freddie <\/p>\n

Freddie Freeman, right, celebrates with Mookie Betts after hitting a two-run home run in the seventh inning against the Padres on Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Derrick Tuskan \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Winning their division could position them to secure a top-two seed in the NL, which would grant them a first-round bye. Failing to do so would subject them to a dangerous best-of-three wild-card series.<\/p>\n

Because of the alarming number of injuries they have sustained this season, the Dodgers have already cycled through a variety of identities, from a team without starting pitching to a team without a reliable bullpen to, most recently, a team without a consistent offense.<\/p>\n

In their previous two games, the Dodgers scored a combined two runs, leading Roberts and some players to question the team\u2019s collective approach at the plate.<\/p>\n

Just a week earlier, the division race looked as if it could be over. The Padres entered a three-game series at Dodger Stadium as the hottest team this side of Milwaukee. The Padres had bolstered their lineup, rotation and top-ranked bullpen at the trade deadline while the Dodgers did almost nothing.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers still swept them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But their inconsistency on offense kept them from protecting the two-game lead they\u2019d built. They inexplicably dropped two of four games against the last-place Colorado Rockies. By Saturday, after their second loss to the Padres in as many days, they were in second place.<\/p>\n

Just as the Dodgers looked as if they could be written off, just as they looked as if they could relinquish control of the division to the Padres, they responded with a performance worthy of their $320-million payroll.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday was a game we couldn\u2019t drop no matter what,\u201d Yamamoto said in Japanese, \u201cso I went into the game with more focus than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hitters also went into the game with a heightened focus, resulting in more extended at-bats that gradually wore down the Padres\u2019 pitchers. The Dodgers scored seven of their runs in the last four innings.<\/p>\n

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The Dodgers don\u2019t play the Padres again this season but Freeman said his team should be more concerned about their improvement rather than what its division rivals do.<\/p>\n

Asked when he would start to scoreboard watch, Freeman replied, \u201cMaybe in mid-September.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reminded only 31 games remain in the regular season, Freeman replied, \u201cIt is a sprint. I\u2019ll be honest with you there. It\u2019s a sprint now. You can\u2019t worry about other teams if, like the last couple games, we don\u2019t fix our offense, how our at-bats were going the last couple days. We fixed it today, we did better today. If you\u2019re worrying about other things, that\u2019s just not conducive, it\u2019s not going to lead to quality things in the clubhouse. So maybe mid-September. When I turn 36, we\u2019ll start scoreboard watching, all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Freeman\u2019s birthday is on Sept. 12. Will the Dodgers know who they are by then?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0When he was finished rounding the bases at Petco Park on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani made a detour…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":174078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,99147,2977,2442,6595,5949,2961,5615,224,5337,99146,8037,99145,11578,16106,4712,1404,3007,20410],"class_list":{"0":"post-174077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-consistent-offense","11":"tag-division","12":"tag-dodgers","13":"tag-freddie-freeman","14":"tag-home-run","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-lead","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-october-dud","20":"tag-padres","21":"tag-previous-game","22":"tag-regular-season","23":"tag-seventh-inning","24":"tag-shohei-ohtani","25":"tag-sunday","26":"tag-team","27":"tag-yoshinobu-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115088912949424689","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}