by Cary Osborne
In the Dodgers’ hope to tread water while many of their key players are on the injured list, they’ve been engulfed by a massive wave.
The Dodgers lost 5–1 on Thursday in the Philadelphia and dropped all three games in the series against the team with Major League Baseball’s best record.
The Dodgers were outscored 19–5 in the series.
The Phillies were 22-for-48 (.458) against Dodgers starting pitching.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers were 12-for-64 (.188) against Philadelphia’s starting pitching.
The Phillies hit seven home runs in the series. The Dodgers hit two, including Gavin Lux’s solo home run on Thursday.
“We don’t have much margin for error,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I hate to say you got to play perfect baseball to win, but it’s seeming like that.”
Of the 15 players who played on Opening Day for the Dodgers, six are on the injured list, including 2024 All-Stars Tyler Glasnow and Mookie Betts and previous All-Stars Max Muncy and Jason Heyward.
The Dodgers have six current or former All-Stars on the injured list, adding Clayton Kershaw and Walker Buehler to the list.
Two of the five starters who opened the Dodger season in the starting rotation are on the injured list — Glasnow and right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Bobby Miller, a third, was optioned to the Minor Leagues on Wednesday.
“We are injured. We have a lot of guys missing. But no one really cares about that, nor does this group in here,” said All-Star Freddie Freeman. “This is who we got. We want to go out there and try to win every ballgame. We just didn’t play very good this series. We’ve got three games left to end on a positive note.”
The Dodgers have lost four straight games. They are 4–8 in their last 12 games. But they entered that stretch with a 7 ½ game lead in the National League West.
They now have a seven-game lead and 55–39 record.
The Dodgers begin a three-game series Friday in Detroit to finish the first half.
They begin it by facing Detroit All-Star Tarik Skubal, who ranks in the American League top three in ERA (2.37), WHIP (0.90) and opponents’ batting average (.195).
A wave of injuries and struggles have the Dodgers on a losing run was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.