LOS ANGELES — Maybe all the subtractions are beginning to add up.
A lineup that lost Trea Turner, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger over the winter also lost Gavin Lux for the season to a spring knee injury. Now, Will Smith will miss at least a week while dealing with concussion symptoms.
Too many of the remaining parts have been “consistently inconsistent” – to borrow a phrase from one of those sputtering parts, Mookie Betts – and produced just six runs in a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs this weekend, losing 3-2 on Sunday afternoon.
The Dodgers have now lost six of their past nine games, leaving them toggling between .500 or one game over for the past week.
In losing two of three to the Cubs, the Dodgers’ offense topped out at two runs per day and were within one two-out, pinch-hit single (David Peralta’s walk-off winner Saturday) of being swept at home. They batted .168 as a team (16 for 95) with 34 strikeouts in the three games.
“The thing for me is, 1 through 9, I think we all expect more consistent at-bat quality,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “There’s times where we look really good and put up big numbers and crooked numbers and there are other times when there’s a lot of quick at-bats, a lot of weak contact. (When) you do that, you’re not going to score many runs.”
The offensive woes flowed from the Smith-less top down.
Betts went 3 for 12 in the series, all three hits coming Sunday – a bloop double, a fly ball lost in the sun for a single and an infield single. Freddie Freeman was 2 for 12 and J.D. Martinez 1 for 11. Fresh off his four-homer series by the Bay, Max Muncy stayed hot with a single and another homer on Friday night. But he went hitless the rest of the weekend including a strikeout after the Dodgers pulled within a run and loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh Sunday.
“A few days ago we scored 10 (Wednesday in San Francisco). It’s been kind of all over the place the first 15…
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