Dodger Details: Los Angeles searches for more from a dragging offense

AL EastBlue JaysOriolesRaysRed SoxYankeesAL CentralGuardiansRoyalsTigersTwinsWhite SoxAL WestAngelsAstrosAthleticsMarinersRangersNL EastBravesMarlinsMetsNationalsPhilliesNL CentralBrewersCardinalsCubsPiratesRedsNL WestDiamondbacksDodgersGiantsPadresRockiesScores & ScheduleStandingsPodcastsThe Windup NewsletterFantasyMLB ProspectsMLB OddsMLB PicksPower RankingsFans Speak UpMLB Season Max Muncy crushed a two-run home run off Tyler Kinley in the eighth inning. All it did was stave off a shutout. Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Getty Images Share articleLOS ANGELES — Max Muncy thought he got it. In what amounted to the best chance the Los Angeles Dodgers could muster Sunday, on a weekend when they scored just seven runs, the third baseman thought he had at least dealt the first blow. With the bases loaded against super reliever Robert Suarez, Muncy crushed one to right field. The ball was hit at 107 mph. Atlanta Braves right fielder Eli White was at full speed on his own when he sprinted over, leaped, crashed into the wall and held on to the ball to preserve a four-run lead. Muncy could only put his hands up in disbelief. “Who do I gotta pay off at this point?” Muncy recalled thinking after the play, a nail in the coffin of another offensive dud and a 7-2 loss. Even in the instances when the Dodgers are doing things right offensively, it seems difficult for them to score runs. And even when the Dodgers have scored runs, they’ve come too late. Muncy put another charge into a ball in his next at-bat, crushing a two-run home run off Tyler Kinley. All it did was stave off a shutout. A quiet weekend and a lost series against the MLB-best Braves only added to a perplexing stretch for the Dodgers offensively. They managed just two hits Sunday and have scored three or fewer runs in eight of their last 11 games. “Just kind of as a unit, I don’t think that 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.” The Dodgers still boast the best offense in the majors by wRC+ (119), but they are searching for answers right now. Some guys are searching for their swings. There are stretches when they are not doing what they need to do to build innings. Roberts pointed to a series of “empty at-bats,” allowing Atlanta starter Bryce Elder to work quickly. Be it a bona fide star such as Spencer Strider on Saturday or the Houston Astros’ Peter Lambert, who signed a minor-league deal out of Japan this winter and threw seven scoreless innings Tuesday against this team, Los Angeles has struggled. “We have some guys that aren’t in the spot that they want to be in right now, and they’re trying to figure that out,” Muncy said. “It’s kind of tough to compete when you’re trying to figure things out. We’ve preached that in the past sometimes, that you got to just forget about everything you’re doing off the field, and when you get in the batter’s box, you just have to compete.” It’s a group that just hasn’t fired on all cylinders, save for a small outburst early this week against an Astros club that is last in ERA (5.57). They are still waiting on their stars. Mookie Betts is set to rejoin the lineup off the injured list Monday, and Shohei Ohtani continues to be mired in a brutal slump, with just four hits in his last 33 at-bats. His OPS is .792, his lowest through 175 plate appearances in a season since 2022 (.756). He went 0-for-4 Sunday and just isn’t hitting the ball hard. Just 48 of his 102 batted balls this season have been hit 95 mph or harder; that would mark his lowest hard-hit rate (47.1 percent) over a full non-COVID-19 season since 2019 with the Los Angeles Angels, when he played through knee trouble that ultimately 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’s right, those are doubles and homers. When he’s not slugging, you can tell he’s not right.” Ohtani alone is not the cause of the Dodgers’ struggles. It is not on one player. But getting him going would be a start for the rest of the offense to follow suit. “It’s kind of his burden in the sense of the expectations for him,” Roberts conceded. When Teoscar Hernández was given the Sunday off, there was clear logic behind it. The Dodgers are in the midst of 13 games without an off day, and everyone will likely sit out at least one day. Hernández is expected to play all four games this week against the San Francisco Giants, Roberts said. Hernández also isn’t hitting. His OPS is .682, and his batting average is .202 over the last month. He hasn’t looked like himself. Roberts said that could lead to changes. Alex Call has gotten off to a good start and has earned more playing time, Roberts said. Hernández’s struggles have created an opening. “He’s certainly missing pitches that he should hit,” Roberts said. “He’s fouling them off, whether they’re spin or fastballs. I think he’s a little too passive at times, getting behind a lot early. It’s hard to hit 0-1. So I think the mechanical piece, the approach piece, there’s things that I know he’s trying to figure out.” Hernández has a .710 OPS against left-handed pitching, which would be his lowest for a full season. He’s swinging far less (44.5 percent of the time) than he did a year ago (50.4 percent). His lack of aggressiveness has played out with his lack of slug — he has just eight extra-base hits in 142 plate appearances this season. “It’s been inconsistent,” Hernández said of his swing. “Sometimes the timing is there. Sometimes it doesn’t. Like I always say, it’s part of the season. Just have to keep fighting in those at-bats, try to find the consistency with my timing.” Hernández’s extended slump has underscored what is emerging as a potential point of concern for an inconsistent offense. The Dodgers have certainly hit left-handed pitching (their 116 wRC+ entering the day ranked third in the majors), but they have not gotten enough production out of their right-handed hitters not named Andy Pages. That group of hitters has combined for a 96 wRC+ — serviceable, but not what they were expecting from a bunch of largely established stars. Getting Betts back should help. Roberts said Sunday he’s still undecided where Betts will hit, but it will likely be either second behind Ohtani or third, where he started the year. Freddie Freeman made a change this week in Houston. It’s a small thing, but even the smallest thing is a massive tweak for a stickler like Freeman. For weeks now, Freeman felt his front side fly open in his swing, forcing him to “cut” it, as he says, and minimize the time his bat is in the hitting zone. So Freeman, on a whim, tried something. Rather than try to tell himself to keep his hip closed during the swing, he started his swing with it already closed. He turned his front foot in toward his body in his batting stance. It looks awkward, but Corey Seager built a career as a slugger doing just that. When Freeman demonstrated the change this week to a reporter, he used a glove to smack the reporter’s front hip. It can’t rotate early when the foot is facing away from the pitcher. “I was getting beat on heaters,” Freeman said. “So it’s been a daily thing of just trying to find mechanical cues. I got to Houston, and, you know, in the morning we got out to the field. I was like, you know, let me try the foot turn in, see if that will help keep my hip in.” Freeman doesn’t know how long he will keep this cue. But if the results come, maybe it will stick. He tried employing the tweak Tuesday. That came after his second consecutive day of on-field batting practice, another rarity. In Freeman’s first at-bat, he laced a double to left field. The ball left his bat at 100 mph, just the kind of opposite-field contact he has built his career on. That felt like something. That was more of a Freddie Freeman-like swing. He's changed some of how he's standing in the box, as the SNLA broadcast pointed out. Look at his front foot, which is turned in towards his body. pic.twitter.com/VAJtrFcBut — Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) May 6, 2026 He doubled the next afternoon, once again to left field. Friday, facing former Cy Young winner Chris Sale, Freeman once again connected. He scorched a center-cut fastball from Sale, letting it travel before crushing it to center field for a home run. It was his first time clearing the fence with a swing in more than a month. “To put a swing like that, I haven’t done that in a month,” Freeman said. “So that’s … my work has been better, obviously, the last few days.” The tweak has had an impact on him in multiple ways. Not only is his swing in a better place, but having that clarity allows him to have his usual approach, too. “I’m making better swing decisions, too,” Freeman said. “My hip (is) in a little bit longer, so I can let the ball travel longer, too. So there’s a lot more to it. Even my misses are better, so just obviously trending in the right direction. To say it’s my foot turning in, I mean, obviously, that’s helped a lot. So hopefully we can continue that.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms