The Los Angeles Dodgers dropped a game to the Arizona Diamondbacks, shrinking the NL West lead to one game and risking a divisional sweep. The San Diego Padres are gaining momentum, increasing urgency in the race. Manager Dave Roberts cited inconsistent focus and urged players to embrace the opportunity, compete with energy and play like defending champions. The Dodgers produced just one run and nine hits across the past two games. Roberts expressed surprise at the lack of consistent focus. With 26 games remaining, FanGraphs projects the Dodgers to go 16-10 and the Padres 14-12 down the stretch.
"I know that the guys understand where we're at as far as the opportunity we have," Roberts said. "And yeah, I would expect them to take it and run and seize the opportunity, without me having to kind of bring it to light. I mean, it's right there. This is a great opportunity that we have, and you got to embrace it. You got to want to be out there. You got to have fun competing. And it just seems like the last couple nights, at some points it was an unrecognizable ballclub. We still got a lot of talent. We're still in a decent spot, but we've got to go play. We got to play better. We do."
"The past two games have included just one run from the Dodgers with nine total hits in the series. When asked about being surprised by his team's inability to maintain a consistent level of focus amid such a tight division race, Roberts answered candidly. "I am," he replied. With 26 games to go before October, the Dodgers are projected to be the best team in baseball, according to Fan Graphs' rest of season projections. LA is said to go 16-10 down the stretch, with the Padres going 14-12."
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