Defensive lapses and a vanishing superstar core leave the Los Angeles Dodgers reeling after the Milwaukee Brewers secured the season series.
The Los Angeles Dodgers found out why the Milwaukee Brewers weren't willing to give up Logan Henderson for Tarik Skubal.
In the end, there's nothing manager Dave Roberts and Co. could do except tip their caps to Milwaukee.
The Brewers looked like the better team in this four-game series, and they have the best record in all of baseball for a reason.
Now, the 74-51 Dodgers must regroup. They still have a commanding seven-game lead in the National League West, but they just dropped the season series to Milwaukee, 4-3, so they know they'll have to finish with a better record than the Brewers by the time the 2026 regular season comes to an end.
Currently, the Brewers are 77-48 and have the best record in all of baseball. The only other team in the NL with a better record than the Dodgers is the Atlanta Braves, but even they are only half a game up on the back-to-back World Series Champions.
Dodgers must clean up their defense
Los Angeles committed three errors in this series, and that simply can't happen. Not only did they commit two errors in the series finale, but both happened to be against Tommy Edman. Sure, he only has three on the year, but that comes in just a 49-game sample size.
While it didn't officially count as an error, Kyle Tucker lost sight of a ball in right field, and that turned into a massive Jackson Chourio double. The Edman error is the reason Milwaukee got a few insurance runs late, but Tucker had a dreadful series, and there's no hiding that.
Four top hitters did little to nothing
Again, give the Brewers every bit of credit for how strong their rotation is, but there's simply no reason the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, and Tucker should've finished this series a combined 5-for-50. Those four combined for 13 strikeouts, and to really put things into perspective, Ohtani gave them their lone RBI.
What happened to Edwin Diaz?
Milwaukee put up three runs on closer Edwin Diaz in the series opener to come away with a massive 5-4 victory that set the tone for the final three games.
They nearly got the best of him again in game two, so one has to wonder: is Diaz's season salvageable?
The 32-year-old does have seven saves on the year, but he also has four blown saves and is just 2-2 with a 10.66 ERA and a horrendous 2.45 WHIP. Things looked slightly better on Friday, Aug. 14, but not enough to believe he can turn his season around.
