One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

The Dodgers got their heads handed to them by the Brewers this weekend. There isn't much to be gained by picking apart every inning of Sunday's 6-2 loss. We've seen this movie before. Too many mistakes, too many missed opportunities and a team that once again looked incapable of getting out of its own way.

They are playing their way downward toward a Wild Card Series, and let's face it, that suddenly doesn't sound nearly as unlikely as it did a few weeks ago. The Wild Card Series is a best-of-three, with the first team to win two advancing.

Anybody watching this team right now confident the Dodgers can win two games out of three at home or on the road?

Recent history suggests otherwise.

The players look tired. They look lethargic. At times, they even look disinterested. Kyle Tucker's missed fly ball in the ninth inning was a particularly ugly example. Now before we drag Kyle through the mud, let's give Tucker a little benefit of the doubt because, at that time of day, right field at Dodger Stadium can be brutal, with the sun bearing directly down on an outfielder.

But given everything else that has gone wrong with Tucker lately, it is unlikely Dodger Nation is going to give him a complete pass.

And that is far from the problem in and of itself.

It isn't one player. It isn't one bad inning. It isn't even one bad weekend.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to look at what is happening and see anything other than a combined effort or lack thereof by the entire team, and unfortunately, that effort is moving the Dodgers in the wrong direction.

Tarik Skubal is somehow getting a pass on paper because he now has two "Quality Starts" in his first three outings as a Dodger. “Quality Starts” are one of those statistics that can look considerably better on paper than they do to the people sitting in the stands.

Skubal hasn't won a game since joining Los Angeles. On Sunday, he threw 109 pitches — his highest total ever — while allowing two runs, one earned, over six innings and striking out seven.

Far from "Quality" in the eyes of Dodgers fans.

Skubal didn't hide from the problem afterward.

"I was just frustrated with the pitch count through 5. I need to be more efficient. It's not acceptable, it's not the standard of what I think I am capable of in this league. I need to be better. I need to be more consistent, continue to get quality contact on the ground. And sometimes you need a little bit of luck."

At least Skubal understands the problem.

The Dodgers have plenty of other problems to go around.

Alex Vesia has suddenly turned into a batting-practice pitcher. Errors here, baserunning blunders there, poor at-bats, questionable ABS challenges, another missed opportunity, another inning that gets away. It has become a seemingly endless cycle of miscues that simply refuse to go away.

And as for the postgame go-to quote — "We've got to flush this one and move on" — STOP.

The Dodgers have “flushed” so many games lately they had to make a service call to Roto-Rooter before packing up Sunday night.

The problem is that every time it appears they've finally gotten things heading in a positive direction, they fall right back into another funk the next game. They take a step forward, only to give back even more ground.

One step forward.

Two steps back.

That's where this team is right now.

Fans can point at one player or another and assign blame. Tucker. Skubal. Vesia. The hitters. The bullpen. The manager.

But at this point, this has become a team problem.

Dave Roberts is taking the heat, and maybe rightly so. He can't catch the fly balls or take the at-bats, but he is responsible for the team he puts on the field and for how that team responds when things start going sideways.

Roberts has long been willing to let players play their way through a slump. Edwin Díaz and Tucker are two recent examples. There is certainly something to be said for allowing talented players to work their way out of trouble.

But there also comes a point when allowing a player to play through a slump begins to look less like patience and more like stubbornness.

Something has to change.

And it has to change now.

Because the Dodgers are running out of time to keep telling everyone that they will eventually figure it out.

They may still have enough talent to turn this around. In fact, they probably do. But talent isn't the problem anymore. The problem is that this team keeps finding new ways to get in its own way.

Roberts might want to consider tightening the reins, whatever that means. If that means demanding more discipline in the field, more situational awareness at the plate, more accountability on the bases and a little less freelancing when the game is hanging in the balance, then so be it.

If it means being more hands-on with pitch selection and making sure hitters understand exactly what the situation calls for, so be it.

The players need to wake up.

The mistakes need to stop.

And the Dodgers need to start playing like a team that understands October is getting closer every day.

Otherwise, the observation Roberts made on the flight home from Arizona on Aug. 9 — that the Dodgers are nothing more than a Wild Card team — has a very good chance of becoming a reality.

Roberts himself sounded painfully aware of what Sunday meant.

"I really wanted to win this game because it could matter, but we didn't, so now we gotta move forward. I hope it doesn't come back to bite us."

That's not exactly the kind of postgame quote that makes a fan feel better.

Because here's the awful scenario: instead of watching early October baseball at home, the Dodgers could find themselves heading south to San Diego, fighting for their season in a best-of-three series.

Right now, I'm not sure anybody watching this team would feel particularly comfortable with that. And that may be the most troubling part of all.

The Dodgers still have the talent. They still have time.

But they keep taking one step forward and two steps back.

At some point, there won't be enough season left to take another step forward.