The Los Angeles Dodgers' recent dodgers games have turned from coronation to crisis. The two-time defending World Series champions have lost eight of their last nine games and 15 of their last 24, watching a commanding 14-game lead in the National League West from early July shrink to 7.5 games entering Monday's slate, according to Front Office Sports. The club also lost three straight series for the first time since September 2025, and over the last 42 games — a quarter of the season — the Dodgers are a pedestrian 21-21.
The slide comes despite the Dodgers landing two-time Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal at the trade deadline, a move expected to cement their status as baseball's most dominant team. Instead, Skubal's own debut ended in a loss to the Cubs, and the roster many considered the most talented in the sport's history has looked ordinary for nearly two weeks, Sports Illustrated reported.
Manager Dave Roberts has not minced words about what he's seeing. "We have to make adjustments," Roberts said, according to Front Office Sports. "I think, for me, that's sort of what I see as a group. We're just not making adjustments." Speaking Monday ahead of a series against the Kansas City Royals, Roberts went further, telling reporters, "Kind of thinking about it on the plane yesterday, we're a wild-card team right now. We gotta get going," according to Jack Harris's reporting relayed by theScore.
A Pitching Staff Turned Upside Down
The numbers behind the collapse are stark. Before the skid began on July 30, Dodgers pitchers ranked second in baseball in fWAR (15.8), fourth in ERA (3.58) and were allowing just 1.15 home runs per nine innings, per Sports Illustrated's analysis. Over the current nine-game stretch, that same staff has posted an fWAR of -0.5 — dead last in the majors — along with a 5.85 FIP, a 4.91 xFIP and 2.09 home runs allowed per nine, the second-worst mark in baseball. Their ERA during the streak sits at 5.47.
Some of it is bad luck: opposing hitters' batting average on balls in play against Dodgers pitching has climbed from a league-best .259 to .277 during the slide. But Sports Illustrated noted the underlying trends are just as telling — the strikeout rate has fallen from 24.7% to 20.7%, while the walk rate has jumped from 8.3% to 10.2%, a combination that has put far more runners on base.
Closer Edwin Diaz has become the poster child for the unraveling. In three appearances during the streak, Diaz has thrown two innings, allowing four runs on five hits with three walks, three strikeouts and two home runs, for an 18.00 ERA and two blown saves, according to Sports Illustrated. He was nonetheless credited with the Dodgers' only win since July 31 — earned, oddly, after blowing a save in that same game. For context, Diaz allowed only three home runs and blew three saves across 66 1/3 innings for the Mets in all of 2025; he has nearly matched that home run total in two innings for the Dodgers.
Starter Justin Wrobleski has cratered similarly. Since July 31 he is 0-2 with an 11.74 ERA, a 12.90 FIP and a 2.48 WHIP across two starts, a dramatic reversal from a season in which he had gone 11-2 with a 2.88 ERA and ranked third among Dodgers pitchers in fWAR.
Roberts also pointed to how opponents are attacking his pitching staff, saying teams are throwing fastballs against the Dodgers more than against any other club in baseball. "It never feels good to be bullied," he said, according to theScore. "And to know that teams go after us with the fastball more than any team in baseball, that's bothersome. That would bother me."
An Offense That Has Gone Quiet
The Dodgers' lineup, which ranked first in the majors in wRC+ (113) and on-base percentage (.341) and averaged 5.16 runs per game through their first 109 games, has fallen to 25th in fWAR, 24th in wRC+ and 22nd in on-base percentage since July 31, scoring just 29 runs — 3.2 per game — in that span, per Sports Illustrated. The team's walk rate has dropped from 10.1% to 6.4% even as its strikeout rate has actually improved slightly, meaning batters are making more contact but doing far less with it.
Several stars are mired in slumps. Freddie Freeman (93 wRC+), Teoscar Hernandez (72), Max Muncy (51), Mookie Betts (24) and Tommy Edman (0) have all posted below-average marks during the streak, while Kyle Tucker (195), Shohei Ohtani (154) and Andy Pages (123) have carried the offense. Muncy is striking out in 46.2% of his at-bats, Betts — a career .506 slugger — is slugging just .194, and Hernandez has not drawn a single walk during the slide. Zooming out, the Dodgers' second-half wRC+ of 95 ranks them 23rd in the majors in runs scored (85) since the All-Star break, according to Sports Illustrated. Complicating matters further, two-way star Ohtani has not pitched in more than a month, per Front Office Sports.
Roberts, fourth in the majors in runs scored on the season but 23rd over the past 30 days per theScore, attributed the offensive drought to a lack of urgency rather than talent. "Everyone's trying," he said. "But I think the effort could still be enhanced and improved and more focused. So yeah, I think it's just a reminder. A good reminder. There's plenty of time. We're still plenty good. But we gotta play like it."
A Backdrop of Labor Tension
The timing of the Dodgers' stumble carries weight beyond the standings. Front Office Sports noted the club's payroll spending has become a flashpoint in Major League Baseball's push for a hard salary cap and changes to the reserve system, with commissioner Rob Manfred arguing last month that competitive balance is central to the sport's future. "It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that payroll gap has the same opportunity to win as the top," Manfred said.
Yet the current standings arguably undercut that argument. The Milwaukee Brewers, from one of baseball's smallest markets, again sit atop the National League, while the Rays, White Sox and Marlins are all in playoff contention on modest budgets. Former MLB star Anthony Rizzo told Front Office Sports last week, "I think it's a big bargaining point for Major League Baseball to get out there and say fans want more competitive play, but in my opinion, it's the most competitive the league's ever been." Front Office Sports also noted that no team with a below-average payroll has won the World Series since the 2017 Houston Astros — a title tainted by a sign-stealing scandal — and the last small-market champion was the 2015 Kansas City Royals, a franchise the Dodgers now face this week as they try to halt the slide.
Despite everything, the Dodgers entered Monday holding the third seed in the NL playoff picture, still viewed as heavy World Series favorites. "We've still got a really good ballclub. There's certainly not panic," Roberts said, according to Front Office Sports. "I think, for us, it's just finding a way to win a game, and then win consistently."
