The Dodgers are on the brink of elimination, as they trail the Blue Jays 3–2 heading into Game 6 of the World Series on Friday. L.A. finds itself in this position due to a shocking offensive slump.
In the past 29 innings, the Dodgers have scored four total runs, with two of those coming on solo home runs by Freddie Freeman and Kiké Hernández. They have authored almost no sustained offense against a Blue Jays team that ranked 19th in ERA this season at 4.19.
In Game 5, the Dodgers were baffled by 22-year-old rookie Trey Yesavage, who went seven innings, allowing one run on three hits while striking out 12. The top four in L.A.’s lineup went a combined 1-for-15 with eight strikeouts.
The Dodgers opened the playoffs by sweeping the Reds and scoring 18 runs over the two games of the series. Since then, the offense has gone to sleep, while the team’s pitching has largely led the way through the NLDS, NLCS and World Series. During the regular season, Los Angeles finished second league-wide in runs (825), home runs (244), and OPS (.768). For some reason, their loaded lineup has completely collapsed.
We’re going inside the numbers to demonstrate just how much the boys in blue are slumping.
84 — Team wRC+ since the wild-card round, compared to 113 during the regular season. That number has dropped to 79 during the World Series.
.214 — Team batting average since the wild-card round, compared to .253 during the regular season. It has dropped to .201 in the World Series.
.306 — Team on-base percentage since the wild-card round, compared to .327 during the regular season. If you remove the eight intentional walks issued to Shohei Ohtani in that time, the number drops to .295.
.360 — Team slugging percentage since the wild-card round, compared to .441 during the regular season. It has fallen to .354 against the Blue Jays.
.666 — This is the Dodgers’ OPS since the wild-card round, far below the .768 mark they posted during the regular season. For comparison, the Blue Jays own an OPS of .827 in the postseason. L.A.’s OPS is .651 in the World Series.
.146 — Team isolated power, well below the .188 the Dodgers produced during the regular season when they ranked second in baseball.
25.4% — Team strikeout rate since the wild-card round for the Dodgers, up from 21.9% during the regular season.
96 — Will Smith’s wRC+ in the postseason, down from 153 during the regular season. Smith’s postseason OPS of .684 has fallen off a cliff from his .901 clip during the regular season.
34 — Mookie Betts’s wRC+ since the wild card round, compared to 104 during the regular season. Betts has no home runs in the postseason and only four extra-base hits. Since the wild card round, he’s slashing a meek .164/.258/.218. The former MVP is 3-for-23 with no extra-base hits in the World Series.
-44 — Andy Pages’s wRC+ in the postseason (it’s -39 since the wild-card round), down from 113 during the regular season. Pages has been an absolute mess at the plate in the playoffs as he’s slashing a woeful .080/.115/.100. He was benched in favor of Alex Call in Game 5.
1.057 — Shohei Ohtani’s OPS since the wild-card round—there’s definitely a “but” coming. Ohtani had historic performances in Game 3 of the NLCS and Game 2 of the World Series. In those games, he went a combined 7-for-7, with five home runs, two doubles, six RBIs, six runs scored, and six walks. If you remove those games from the calculation, his OPS since the start of the NLDS is a shocking .599, and he has struck out 19 times in 44 at-bats.
It’s unclear what has caused the Dodgers to run out of gas, but the slump has become contagious. Something needs to change in a hurry if L.A. wants to become the first back-to-back World Series champion in more than 20 years.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Inside the Numbers of the Dodgers’ Postseason Offensive Collapse.