Even after acquiring ace pitcher Tarik Skubal, the Dodgers have weakened considerably in a competitive slide that could have large-scale implications across baseball.
With Sunday’s loss at Arizona, the Dodgers have lost eight of their last nine games and 15 of the last 24. The club’s 14-game lead in the National League West in early July has since been cut nearly in half to 7.5 games entering Monday’s games as the Dodgers have lost three straight series for the first time since September 2025.
Over a longer period this year, the team is just 21-21 in its last 42 games—a stretch representing a quarter of the 2026 regular season—and two-way star Shohei Ohtani hasn’t pitched in more than a month.
The expanded dominance that had been expected from the Dodgers after landing Skubal, a two-time Cy Young Award winner, and forcing the club to respond to renewed “blowback,” has since become anything but that.
“We have to make adjustments,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “I think, for me, that’s sort of what I see as a group. We’re just not making adjustments.”
