At this point in the season, it is not surprising that Los Angeles Dodgers have a very inconsistent offensive performance. One weekend they can sweep a series and then be swept by one of the worst teams in MLB such as the Pittsburgh Pirates. However, in his appearance at home plate against Paul Skenes, an Angels reaction showed the good pitching of his colleague where he also shows symptoms of weakness of the current champions, where they are no longer considered as candidates to win the World Series and even not even to reach the National League Championship Series.
Paul Skenes was on the mound in his game against the Los Angeles Dodgers where one of his pitches to Shohei Ohtani was a “sweeper”. When a perfect strike was called, the Japanese player just stared at the strike zone in amazement. However, at the end of the series against the Pittsburgh Pirates (the third worst team in the National League and fifth in MLB), they were swept by scores of 9-7/3-0/5-3. In fact, they have only won one of their last seven games.
Shohei Ohtani begins to say goodbye to the American League MVP
Just as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ performance has been inconsistent, it has also affected Shohei Ohtani, who has hit a home run every three games. In this statistic, he is stuck on 46 home runs while Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh leads the way with 51 and is closely followed by Philadelphia Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber with 49.
The Japanese pitcher could even lose the third overall spot to Aaron Judge, who despite being sidelined for 10 days due to injury, is three home runs away from overtaking Ohtani and with it also burying his aspirations to contend for the American League MVP.
Why haven’t the San Diego Padres snatched the NL West lead from the Dodgers?
Despite the bad streaks that the Los Angeles Dodgers have had throughout the second half of the season, the truth is that they remain leaders of the National League West, but only by a margin of two games. The reigning champions have a record of 78 wins and 63 losses while the San Diego Padres are 76-65, this is because of their last 11 games they have only won two while they have lost their last three series (Seattle, Minnesota, Baltimore). They also began their series against the Colorado Rockies, the worst team in MLB, with a loss.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are visiting Baltimore, where they began the series on Friday with a walk-off home run by Samuel Basallo. Ohtani pitched 3.2 innings where he allowed no runs and contributed five strikeouts. The losing pitcher was Tanner Scott, who was hit by the game-winning hit. The series will continue on Saturday and Sunday where the Dodgers must regain confidence at all costs
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