Dodgers are sliding in major way: ‘This better be rock bottom’

The reigning World Series champs are reeling.

The Dodgers have quickly watched their lead in the NL West slip over the past few weeks as they’ve now lost 11 of their last 14 games.

It’s certainly better to struggle in July than come playoff time in October, but Los Angeles’ manager Dave Roberts is ready to see his team dig out of this hole.

“It better be rock bottom, as far as how we’ve been pitching, how we’ve been playing defense,” Roberts said following his team’s 10-7 loss to the Twins on Tuesday. “I think the offense is starting to kind of tick up, which is good … But yeah, I think as far as quality of baseball, it’s been a tough watch.”

The Dodgers are no longer the NL’s top team and while they still hold the lead in the NL West, the Padres trail them by just 3.5 games for the top spot in the division entering Wednesday’s slate.

Over their 4-11 stretch since July 3, Los Angeles has batted just .207 and posted a 4.96 ERA as a team.

Eight-time All-Star Mookie Betts has especially struggled for the Dodgers, as the former AL MVP and three-time World Series champ has posted career-lows in essentially every statistic, and by a wide margin.

He’s currently batting just .238 with a .683 OPS and a 92 OPS+. In his career, he’s never finished a season posting a batting average lower than .264, an OPS lower than .803 or an OPS+ lower than 108.

“I’ve never done this,” Betts said Saturday. “It’s all new. I’ve never been this bad for this long.”

Even Shohei Ohtani has faced some struggles in recent weeks, as he has just 11 hits for a .200 average in the last 15 games. Six of those 11 hits have been homers, however.

The entire league looks to be wide open this season, as the Dodgers aren’t the only team to have run into a midseason lull after a strong start.

The AL-leading, 60-42 Detroit Tigers have lost eight of their last 10 games and are set to lose their current series against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, the Mets had their off-the-rails stretch in June, the Phillies earlier faced a brutal 1-9 stretch and the Yankees have lost their AL East lead with a below-.500 stretch since June 1.