Max Muncy launched a two-run homer off Tyler Kinley in the eighth inning, but it only prevented a shutout. When the Los Angeles Dodgers mounted their best chance of the weekend—having scored just seven runs in the series—Muncy believed he had delivered the first blow. With the bases loaded against elite reliever Robert Suarez, he hammered a 107 mph drive to right field.
Atlanta Braves right fielder Eli White sprinted, leaped, crashed into the wall, and held on to the ball, preserving a four-run lead. Muncy threw up his hands in disbelief. “Who do I gotta pay off at this point?” he recalled thinking after the play, which sealed another offensive dud in a 7–2 loss.
Even when the Dodgers appear to do things right offensively, scoring runs remains difficult. And when they do push runs across, it’s often too late. In his next at-bat, Muncy again crushed a ball, this time for a two-run homer off Kinley, but it only prevented a shutout.
A quiet weekend and a lost series against the MLB-best Braves added to a perplexing offensive stretch for Los Angeles. They managed just two hits on Sunday and have scored three or fewer runs in eight of their last 11 games. “Just as a unit, I don’t think we’re one piece right now,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s not from lack of effort. We’ve been in this funk for quite some time.”
Despite having the best offense in the majors by wRC+ (119), the Dodgers are searching for answers. Some players are trying to find their swings, and the team struggles to build innings. Roberts pointed to a series of “empty at-bats” that allowed Atlanta starter Bryce Elder to work quickly. Whether against a star like Spencer Strider on Saturday or Houston’s Peter Lambert—who signed a minor-league deal out of Japan this winter and threw seven scoreless innings on Tuesday—Los Angeles has struggled.
It’s a group that hasn’t fully clicked, except for a brief outburst earlier this week against an Astros team with the worst ERA (5.57) in the league.
The Dodgers are still waiting for their stars. Mookie Betts is expected to rejoin the lineup off the injured list on Monday. Shohei Ohtani remains mired in a brutal slump, with just four hits in his last 33 at-bats. His OPS stands at .792, his lowest through 175 plate appearances in a season since 2022 (.756). He went 0-for-4 on Sunday and isn’t hitting the ball hard. Only 48 of his 102 batted balls this season have been hit at 95 mph or harder—that would mark his lowest hard-hit rate (47.1 percent) in a full non-COVID-19 season since 2019, when he played through knee trouble that required surgery.
“I don’t know if it’s a mechanical thing with Shohei,” Roberts said. “But there’s a lot of popups, fly balls to the left fielder where, when he
