Dodgers embarrass themselves in loss to Halos

Well, we have officially reached the I-can’t-watch-this-who-is-this-garbage-team-anyway portion of the Dodgers season. There’s no easy way to put this. The Dodgers are an awful baseball team right now. Awful in a way that is hard to put into words. Their latest descent into mediocrity came in the form of 9-2 loss to Angels down in Anaheim on Friday night.

Worst start of the year for Urias

Usually, even if the Dodgers aren’t hitting, we could count on the starting pitching to keep us in the game. Not tonight. Julio Urias, after he eased through the first inning on a handful of pitches, got rocked bad tonight. In his five innings of work, he gave up 5 earned runs, something he hadn’t done since 2019. He gave up eight hits, two of which were solo home runs from Justin Upton and Taylor Ward in the bottom of the second. The Ward homer put the Halos in the lead and they coasted to an easy victory the rest of the way.

Kelly rocked in return to Dodgers

But hey, at least Joe Kelly is off of the IL today, right? Slow, down, Buster. You may want to rethink that enthusiasm. Kelly came in in relief of Urias, and pretty much got shelled. The Angels were ripping the ball all over the yard in the sixth inning, and Kelly didn’t make it out of the inning. In just two-thirds of an inning, he gave up a single, three doubles, and a triple from All-Star Mike Trout. Well, let me rephrase that: a single by Mike Trout that AJ Pollock turned into a triple when he injured himself trying to field the ball. By the time Kelly walked off the mound, the Angels had amassed a 9-1 lead.

Dodgers’ bats in deep slumber

So how bad was the offense tonight? Pretty darn bad is the answer. So bad that the only highlight I thought that I could show you from the game was Will Smith scoring on a ground out. Mookie Betts did hit a solo home run in the top of the ninth, but it hardly mattered. A meaningless run at the end of an awful game.

The whole thing was an embarrassing pathetic mess. No other way to describe it. Someday, the Dodgers will snap out of it and start playing winning baseball again. But God knows when that will happen. In the midst of this slump, it’s hard to even try to predict when. Who knows, maybe Saturday will be the day. Clayton Kershaw will start against Dylan Bundy. First pitch 6:07 pm.