PHOENIX — The season was supposed to be over, right?
The World Series champion was crowned in August.
All that remained for the Los Angeles Dodgers was planning that World Series parade route.
Well, it has been a week since the Dodgers acquired two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.
And they have yet to win a game.
Really.
They were walked off Friday night by the Arizona Diamondbacks, with Edwin Diaz blowing the save in their 4-3 loss.
And just like that, the Dodgers have lost seven consecutive games for the first time this season, outscored 46-25.
It took nearly a month before the Dodgers lost their seventh game of the season, and now, they have lost seven games in eight days, suffering two sweeps and now trying to avoid a third one.
Certainly, the Dodgers are in no real danger of blowing a 7½-game lead in the National League West over the Diamondbacks.
They are sitting comfortably in first place, and have absolutely no worries they’ll win the division.
But suddenly, instead of having the best record in baseball, they have only the third-best in the NL, trailing Milwaukee and Atlanta.
If the season ended today, they’d be forced to play the wild-card round against the No. 6 seed, which would be the Philadelphia Phillies.
“A loss is a loss,’’ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said calmly, “but to get walked off never feels good. We didn’t play a clean game, a great game on either side of the baseball, but we did enough to put ourselves in position to win the game.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it.’’
It was Diaz, their $69 million closer, who blew the game.
He missed 85 games this year after undergoing arthroscopic elbow surgery in April, has come back and pitched four times, and hardly looks like the same All-Star pitcher. He has pitched three innings and given up six hits, four runs with four strikeouts and two walks.
And, yes, a blown save when he left a slider hanging over the plate to No. 9 hitter Ryan Waldschmidt, who smacked a 90-mph slider over the middle of the plate into the center-field seats.
“I’m just trying to be perfect with that pitch,’’ Diaz said, “and I’m just missing right down the middle. I’ve got to be better than that. I’m a big-league pitcher, so I've got to make pitches. Next time when I come into the game, I’ve got to do better.’’
Diaz, who signed a three-year, $69 million contract, the largest average salary for a reliever in baseball history, insists he feels healthy. He was still throwing his fastball 97 mph, and pretty much where he wanted. But it’s that bread-and-butter pitch, the slider, that’s betraying him.
“I think that everything what I’ve been doing is good,’’ Diaz said, “but I don’t know when I get into the game, I’m missing my (slider) right in the middle. … I’ve got a good fastball, but my slider, that’s my strikeout pitch.
“I got to keep working. I’m still positive. I’ve just got to do my job better.’’
The Dodgers are trying to stay positive, too, but know that if Diaz doesn’t have his slider, he’s only an ordinary reliever. And if he’s only ordinary, the Dodgers have to find someone else who can close out games.
“I just think he just hasn’t had the feel for that pitch,’’ Roberts said, “since he got back. … I think it obviously sucks to go through it, but he’s working hard to figure some things out. But it’s one of those things that it’s a little bit tougher when you’re trying to work through it and you’re at the back end of a game.
“It doesn’t feel good, but I know the track record that he’s working hard. He’s not going to run from it. It’s one of those things that you’ve got to kind of throw him into it, knowing he’s healthy, and work himself out of it.’’
The Dodgers are finding themselves in the same situation as a year ago. They acquired Diaz in the first place because Tanner Scott, who signed a four-year, $72 million contract the previous winter, couldn’t handle the closer’s role, blowing 10 saves. Now, they’ve got $141 million invested in closers and are still looking for the right guy.
When Roberts was asked if he would consider removing Diaz from the closer’s role and using someone else, he was rather blunt.
“I think honestly,’’ Roberts said, “you’ve got to look at the options, and see the way some of these guys are throwing. They’re not throwing great, either. We’ve got to keep guys in their roles that they’ve earned, and try to get them on a run the way we were a few weeks ago.
“So, I just don’t think there’s a clear-cut alternative.’’
The Dodgers wish that was their only problem these days. Their offense has been abysmal, too. They didn’t produce their first hit off D-backs starter Merrill Kelly until Tommy Edman’s infield single in the sixth inning. Their only extra-base hit was Andy Pages’ go-ahead homer in the eighth inning. Their star quintet of Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Kyle Tucker went 2-for-16.
Tucker, who was supposed to be their solution in right field − they gave him a stagging four-year, $240 million contract − is hitting just .244 with 10 homers and a .719 OPS. He was summoned by Roberts into Roberts' office before the game just to make sure his confidence isn’t eroding.
“I think he’s in a good spot, I really do,’’ Roberts said. “It hasn’t been what anyone had hoped for up to this point, but for me, there’s been some signs breaking. There’s still a lot of baseball left, important baseball to play. But I think he’s in a great headspace.’’
Really, Roberts can say the same about his entire team. There’s no panic. They’ve got Skubal now, who will make his first start at Dodger Stadium in a Dodger uniform on Monday. Fellow two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, who has pitched only three innings all season, is scheduled to start Tuesday. And Roki Sasaki turned in a strong outing Friday, giving up just four hits and two runs in six innings.
The Dodgers have endured rough stretches plenty of times through this dynasty. They lost seven games in a row last July. In 2017, the year they reached the World Series for the first time since 1988, they went through a 1-16 stretch. And still won 104 games.
“I remember,’’ Roberts said. “It felt like we would never win another game. Well, we did win another game.
“And you know what? I know we’ll win another game now, too.’’
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Panic time for Dodgers? Losing streak hits 7 as Edwin Diaz blows save
COVERS INTEL: Yamamoto ranks in the 99th percentile in Pitcher Run Value this season.
