It was just looking like the Dodgers had the division all but wrapped up, but if there’s one thing they’ve proven time and again, it’s that they can invent new ways to collapse. Well, take Saturday night against the Orioles, for example. What was supposed to be a historic night, one where Japanese sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto could’ve stamped his name alongside the greats, turned into a nightmare.

Notably, Yamamoto was brilliant, taking a no-hitter all the way into the bottom of the ninth with two outs and the Dodgers up 3-0. But on a 2-1 pitch, Jackson Holliday spoiled it, launching a home run to right field. However, surprisingly, the Dodgers then made the questionable call to pull Yamamoto and bring in Blake Treinen to close it out. And, well, that’s where everything unraveled.

The Dodgers’ meltdown was so staggering that even the MLB analysts couldn’t hide their frustration. “Not only are we playing awful, but man, we really just let one of our teammates down tremendously right there.” Another added to it, “Good teams finish. They finish. In football, you run the ball out. Basketball, you make sure you get the guy knocked down the free throws to win the ball game. You finish in baseball. Here’s the ball to our closer or the guy that we rely on to close out games. You’ve got to be able to finish this type of game. I feel sick right now, man,“ commentators at BaseballNewsToday were left stunned.

At the bottom of the ninth inning, Oriole Park was buzzing, and Dodgers fans were hanging on every pitch. It has been more than a decade since Clayton Kershaw’s no-hitter. And here was Yamamoto, carving through hitters with surgical precision, one out away from making history. But then came the gut punch. After Holliday crushed one over Andy Pages’ head in right, it’s all gone.

With the score now 3-1, Dave Roberts went to the bullpen. Yamamoto had thrown 112 pitches, a career high, and Roberts decided that was enough. Enter Blake Treinen. What followed was a meltdown for the ages: a double, a hit-by-pitch, a walk, another walk. Suddenly, that comfortable 3-0 lead was cut to 3-2, the bases were still loaded, and the Dodgers kept on calling relievers. The result? A walk-off 4-3 loss!

The Dodgers added a headache with their offense

It’s not only their closing but also the offense that is haunting the Dodgers on the eve of the postseason.

Well, since July, the Dodgers’ offense has gone ice cold. If you know, they’re hitting just .235/.314/.397 over that span, with only 233 runs scored in 55 games. Surprisingly, that’s 27th out of 30 teams in MLB. The further rankings tell the story: 26th in batting average, 16th in on-base percentage, 21st in slugging, 20th in wRC+, 21st in OPS, and they’ve struck out at one of the highest rates in baseball!

Enough to conclude that the Dodgers are more than struggling with their offense.

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Since July, only four Dodgers have been consistently above league average with the bat (by wRC+ and at least 100 plate appearances): Shohei Ohtani, Will Smith, Freddie Freeman, and Miguel Rojas. Everyone else has lagged. For instance, Mookie Betts, Andy Pages, Michael Conforto, and Teoscar Hernandez have all had plenty of opportunities but delivered below-average results.

Now, what makes it even more frustrating is that this same lineup started the season as one of the best in baseball. The talent is still there, but for two months now, the bats just haven’t shown up.