I don't like throwing around the term "must win" too loosely because most of the time it's not. People tend to overreact and think that if their club doesn't win a certain game, the season is over.
With that said, the Dodgers season is coming close to unraveling and I am dubbing tonight's game, on Aug. 20 against the Cubs, a must win.
So why is this one a must win? Well, that's easy...
The Rockies won again
The Colorado Rockies are apparently the greatest team to ever play the game of baseball. They won again, finishing off a sweep of the Washington Nationals. Since June 3, when the Rockies were in last place at 20-32 and 15.5 games out of first (15.5!!!!) they are 48-21, playing nearly .700 baseball.
If the Dodger lose, the lead that was once insurmountable will fall to 2.5 games, meaning the Rockies will have knocked 13 games off their deficit over two and a half months.
The Giants were 9.5 games back on that date and have gone 41-30 since then. They lost today so it would be nice to keep the 3.5 game lead over Colorado and to push the lead over SF to 5.5.
They need to get on a roll
This team is in dire straits of rattling off a few wins in a row. They need it very, very badly in order to build some confidence.
Since July 22, when they went a season-high 27 games (61-34) over .500, they are 10-16. Over that stretch they are the worst team in the National League West. They are the only team in the division playing under .500 since that date. Since the All-Star Break the team is 15-18, just a half game better than the lowly Padres.
This club really, really, really, really (is that enough really's?) needs to sweep a series, something they haven't done since finishing off the Reds on July 22. Before that, their previous sweep was on May 27 against the Rockies.
The Dodgers have only won a pair of series' since sweeping the Reds. Take a look:
July 24-26 v. Florida 1-2
July 27-30 at St. Louis 1-3
July 31-Aug. 2 at Atlanta 2-1
Aug. 3-5 v. Milwaukee 1-2
Aug. 6-9 v. Atlanta 1-3
Aug. 10-12 at San Francisco 2-1
Aug. 13-15 at Arizona 1-2
Aug. 17-19 v. St. Louis 2-1
Remember when this team was unbeatable at home? Since the series against the Reds (which was clearly the high point) they are 4-9 at home. Remember when they hadn't lost three games in a row at all this season? They've done that three times in the span of 24 days.
Maybe I am just droning on and on about how bad they are playing, but looking at these numbers shows just how truly awful they have been for the better part of a month.
This ship is sinking and the season is close to being a disaster. Things really need to get turned around for this season not to be an abysmal disappointment.
i just dont think the rockies are gonna stop... the dodgers are in a heck of a lot of trouble... a world series contender should not play this poorly over this extended period of a time...