In their last series, the Dodgers lost two out of three games against the Boston Red Sox to snap their streak of undefeated series at 18. In the three-game series the Dodgers scored just five runs on a measly 11 hits.
Before the series with Boston, they played four games in Miami, and racked up plenty of hits in the vast outfield of Marlins Park. Obviously as a team they performed poorly against Boston, hitting just 0.129, but certain players are in serious slumps that started well before this past weekend.
In the first eight games of August, Yasiel Puig was hitting .483/.605/.759. He is just 10-61 in his last 15 games played, dropping his batting average to a season-low .342. He has shown before that he can fire it back in gear quickly. Many thought he might turn it around after his big home run in Miami, but since then he is 3-20.
Hanley Ramirez is 9-37 since diving into the stands and injuring his shoulder in Chicago on August 4. While it could be a normal slump, it is reasonable to worry that his injury may have been more severe and he has not been playing at 100 percent. Ramirez, like Puig, could just be a day away from hitting into his groove and becoming an unstoppable force at the plate again.
The Ellis' are struggling mightily too. Second baseman Mark Ellis has just six hits in his last eight games, and catcher A.J. Ellis hitting .103 in his last 10 games, and just .176/.267/.255 in the month of August.
The last time the Dodgers played Chicago the team hit .248 in the series. They swept the four-game series, but their runs were spread out quite lopsided as they combined for 12 runs in the first two games, and only four runs in the last two games.
After rattling off a season-high 10-game winning streak, the Dodgers are now 4-3 in their last seven games. In their next three series they face the Cubs (20 games under .500), the Padres (12 games under) and the Rockies (10 games under).
