Another case of summertime blues

Series-opening loss to Angels has Dodgers in same funk as last year

- JACK HARRIS

SHORTSTOP Zach Neto takes a trot for his second home run of the night as the Angels improved to 4-0 against the Dodgers this season with a 7-4 victory at Angel Stadium.

On the first day of spring training, at a Camelback Ranch facility adorned with ever-present reminders of the team's 2024 World Series title, a Dodgers staff member took in the scene, then chuckled while reflecting on the club's trek to a championship.

"Last year was not a fun year," the staff member said. "At least, not until the end."

In the afterglow of the franchise’s first full-season title in more than three decades, the turbulent path getting there became easy to forget.

Last season's Dodgers dealt with a wave of injuries to the pitching staff, inconsistencies in the lineup, and the club’s lowest full regular-season win total (98) in six years.

Fast-forward six months, and this year’s Dodgers find themselves in a similar place.

They are again navigating absences on the mound and in the bullpen over the last several weeks. Their offense has gone from leading the majors in scoring over the first half of the season, to suddenly sputtering over the last month and a half.

And after a 7-4 loss to the Angels on Monday, in the opener of a three-game Freeway Series at Angel Stadium, they are on pace for only 92 victories with a 68-51 record, clinging to what has dwindled to a one-game lead in the National League West over the San Diego Padres.

Little fun. Lots of frustration.

"It’s not going well for us right now," third baseman Max Muncy said. "We got to find a way to snap out of it. No one's going to feel sorry for us. So it’s on us to find our way out of it, and we need to do it." Monday's game was a lost cause from the start.