Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. My third grandchild, Paisley, was born this week. Things like that give Brock Stewart pitching poorly the proper perspective.

The Dodgers season was going along just fine. We had grown accustomed to the pitching doing poorly, and being injured, and were just waiting for the start of the postseason. But, no, the Dodgers had to thrown in a new wrinkle: The offense is now terrible too.

So what has happened to the offense? Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández stopped hitting. Max Muncy was injured. It seemed that only Will Smith could still get the key hits when needed.

Let’s take a look at the team’s hitting in July:

Alex Freeland, 1 for 2
Will Smith, .349/.461/.587, 22 for 63, 3 doubles, 4 homers, 7 RBIs, 12 walks, 15 K’s
Michael Conforto, .273/.342/.485, 18 for 66, 5 doubles, 3 homers, 7 RBIs, 6 walks, 15 K’s
Freddie Freeman, .253/.327/.352, 23 for 91, 6 doubles, 1 homer, 13 RBIs, 9 walks, 32 K’s
Miguel Rojas, .250/.361/.481, 13 for 52, 3 doubles, 3 homers, 5 RBIs, 9 walks, 9 K’s
Andy Pages, .247/.299/.382, 22 for 89, 3 doubles, 3 homers, 9 RBIs, 6 walks, 26 K’s
Teoscar Hernández, .232/.284/.362, 3 doubles, 2 homers, 11 RBIs, 5 walks, 20 K’s
Mookie Betts, .205/.261/.325, 17 for 83, 4 doubles, 2 homers, 5 RBIs, 6 walks, 14 K’s
Shohei Ohtani, .204/.321/.505, 19 for 93, 1 double, 9 homers, 19 RBIs, 16 walks, 32 K’s
Hyeseong Kim, .193/.207/.211, 11 for 57, 1 double, 3 RBIs, 1 walk, 24 K’s
Esteury Ruiz, .190/.261/.333, 4 for 21, 1 homer, 2 RBIs, 2 walks, 8 K’s
Dalton Rushing, .179/.200/.214, 5 for 28, 1 double, 2 RBIs, 8 K’s
Tommy Edman, .156/.239/.230, 2 homers, 6 RBIs, 5 walks, 15 K’s
James Outman, .067/.176/.133, 1 for 15, 1 double, 1 walk, 5 K’s
Max Muncy, 0 for 5
Kiké Hernández, 0 for 9
Team, .226/.302/.375, 31 doubles, 30 homers, 80 walks, 226 K’s, 3.79 runs per game

That’s pretty brutal (however, note how well Conforto has been hitting for over a month now). Let’s look at the team rankings in July among the 30 MLB teams:

Batting average: 28th
OB%: 27th
SLG%: 25th
Runs: 28th

They were last in doubles and triples, 15th in home runs.

Things have picked up slightly in August. Freeman is hitting .458 with power, Ohtani is hitting .400, Teoscar is hitting .250 with power. The only one still not hitting is Betts, who is hitting .174 in August. They are only 3-3 in August and are 13-17 over their last 30 games.

Betts is having the worst season of his career, and it’s not even close. Let’s look at his OPS+ each season (remember, OPS+ compares a hitter to the league average. An OPS+ of 120 means the hitters is 20% better than league average, an OPS+ of 80 means they were 30% worse.

2014: 126
2015: 117
2016: 133
2017: 108
2018: 186
2019: 134
2020: 147
2021: 126
2022: 140
2023: 165
2024: 142
2025: 88

His best season, 2018, was the year he won AL MVP with the Red Sox.

With the move to shortstop, the Dodgers have gone from having a perennial Gold Glove and MVP candidate in right field, to an average (at best) fielding, below-average hitter at shortstop. I checked at Baseball Reference, and looked for Dodgers shortstops who had a career OPS+ near 85 and similar fielding stats. The answer: Greg Gagne and Bill Russell.

And, when you think about it, Betts is playing about the same as Russell did, only 50 years later in a much different game.

Betts talked to Times columnist Dylan Hernández before and after Tuesday’s game, and had some interesting quotes. Betts said it wasn’t the position switch or the illness just as the season began that triggered his slump. It started when Betts broke his left hand in June last season.

“I really haven’t been right since I came back from my hand last year,” Betts said. “Think about it. Go and look at it. I haven’t been right since.”

OK, so let’s look at it.

Before his hand was broken, Betts was hitting .304/.405/.488 last season. After that, he hit .263/.314/.497. Lower average, a lot fewer walks, but more power. He hit .290 in the postseason with five doubles and four homers.

Then there’s this season, where he has fallen off a cliff.

There was hope Tuesday when Betts went three for four. But that came on the heels of an 0 for 20 skid, and he followed it up by going one for four Wednesday as the Dodgers lost two of three from the Cardinals.

Betts has continued to work hard to improve, taking extra batting practice and doing anything and everything to get better, so the effort is not in question. And it’s hard to think of a player who was at the level Betts played at who just stopped hitting all of a sudden. There’s usually a gradual decline. Adrián González stopped hitting suddenly, but he wasn’t quite at Betts’ level, and the shift played into that some.

But here’s the thing. When the Dodgers moved Ohtani to the leadoff spot, the reasoning was they wanted to give their best hitter the most at bats. Some didn’t like it, but they won a World Series with Ohtani leading off.

Betts had a .314 on-base percentage last season after his hand was broken. He has a .308 on-base percentage this season. He is batting second. That is not giving the most at bats to your best hitters. It’s time to move Betts down to the bottom half of the order. Dave Roberts isn’t going to do that, but it’s time. For a full season now, Betts’ on-base percentage has been subpar. One of the jobs of your top two hitters is to get on base. And maybe Betts will relax a little lower in the order. Who knows. We’re not in the Dodgers clubhouse every day to get an emotional read on everyone. Maybe moving Betts down would destroy his confidence. I can’t speak intelligently as to those things. But on paper, he needs to move down to sixth or seventh. Maybe try Alex Call in the two spot against lefties. He has a .371 on-base percentage this season and is a guy GM Brandon Gomes called “a grinder.” He works the count. The Dodgers have fallen out of the habit of doing that. Maybe a fresh look at the top of the lineup will get things going again.

Because one thing is for sure. The Padres are looming large in the rear-view mirror. I still believe the Dodgers will make the postseason, but better to do it as a division winner than a wild-card.

But, despite this brutal, no-good, very bad season, keep in mind an important fact:

Last season at this time, the Dodgers were 66-49 and had a three-game lead over San Diego and Arizona in the NL West. They had just gone 11-13 in July and were 3-3 in August at that time. Some readers and fans online were saying this team would never win the World Series.

This season, the Dodgers are 66-49 and have a two-game lead over San Diego in the NL West. They have just gone 10-14 in July and are 3-3 in August. Some readers and fans online are saying this team will never win the World Series.

Check out what Jack Harris has to say about the offense by clicking here.

Notes

—Ohtani got his 1,000th major league hit on Wednesday. 1,405 players have reached the 1,000-hit mark. Remember Amed Rosario, whom the Dodgers acquired via trade twice in the last couple of seasons and then cut loose relatively quickly? He has 1,001 hits (in 100 more at bats).

—Ohtani is on pace for 55 home runs this season, one more than he hit last year. However, he has only 16 steals, compared to 59 last year. That’s what pitching will do. Have to protect those legs.

—Readers ask why Ohtani is striking out so much. Compared to his career norms, he really isn’t (a 1.2% increase). However last season, a magical season for him, was his career low in strikeouts, making this season seem worse than it is. His career high is 189, in 2021 with the Angels. He’s on pace to strike out 192 times this season, but in 100 more plate appearances than in 2021.

—Brock Stewart has given up two runs in 2-2/3 innings with the Dodgers. Apparently they accidentally acquired the 2019 Stewart.

—Roki Sasaki has a three-inning simulated game Friday, after which he could go out on a minor-league rehab assignment.

—The Giants released former Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes, who went eight for 39 (.205) in the minors with them.

—Dustin May made his first start for the Red Sox on Wednesday, giving up three runs in 3-2/3 innings of a loss.

—Max Muncy hit two homers Tuesday, his 19th multi-homer game with the Dodgers, tying him for the most in L.A. Dodgers history with Mike Piazza.

—Muncy has 205 home runs with the Dodgers, fourth in L.A. history behind Eric Karros (270), Ron Cey (228) and Steve Garvey (211). He’s still well off the franchise record, held by Duke Snider (389).

—As far as position player injuries go, Hyeseong Kim could be back soon, while the return date for Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández remains murky.

—Only 20 pitchers have struck out at least 3,000 batters. Two of them, Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw, start against each other Friday. You have to appreciate these moments when they happen.

—The Toronto Blue Jays come to town next. They just scored 45 runs and had 63 hits in a three-game sweep of the Rockies. And yes, the Rockies are historically bad, but still…

Up next

Friday: Toronto (Max Scherzer, 2-1, 4.39 ERA) at Dodgers (*Clayton Kershaw, 5-2, 3.29 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Toronto (Chris Bassitt, 11-5, 4.12 ERA) at Dodgers (*Blake Snell, 1-1, 3.21 ERA), 6:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Toronto (*Eric Lauer, 7-2, 2.59 ERA) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 10-7, 2.51 ERA) 1:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Hernández: Mookie Betts sounds depressed, but he isn’t giving up on snapping his hitting slump

Things are finally turning around for Dodgers’ Roki Sasaki

‘They’ve got to perform better.’ Three Dodger stars who need to heat up at the plate

And finally

In 2004, Adrian Beltré hits a go-ahead grand slam. Watch and listen here.

Until next time…

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at [email protected], and follow me on Twitter at @latimeshouston. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.