Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Dodgers Drop Fourth Straight as Pitching, Defense Fall Apart vs. Diamondbacks

Even superteams have slumps...

Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

For most of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers have looked untouchable, too deep, too talented, and too balanced to ever truly stumble. But baseball humbles even the best, and right now, the Dodgers are being reminded that greatness doesn’t exempt you from slumps.

Monday night’s 9–5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks was their fourth straight defeat, the club’s longest skid in nearly a year. Defense faltered. Pitching collapsed. And an uncharacteristically quiet Dodger Stadium mirrored the on-field mess, as fans voiced their displeasure during one of the most lackluster showings of the year.

From the jump, the Dodgers were out of sync. In the first inning, center fielder Hyeseong Kim misjudged a routine fly ball in the fading light. It dropped in for what was ruled a double, and it opened the door for two early runs. The next inning, Max Muncy uncorked a bouncing throw to first base on a slow roller. That too was scored a hit, but once again, it was a defensive lapse that kept the Dodgers on the back foot.

It only got worse from there. Jack Dreyer, making a spot start as the team continues to cobble together innings with several starters on the injured list, followed Muncy’s error with a wild pitch that ricocheted to the backstop and moved the runner along. The Diamondbacks capitalized on the chaos with a sacrifice fly to make it 3–0.

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When Landon Knack entered in the third, he didn’t fare much better. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. jumped all over a down-and-in slider for a two-run homer. A few batters later, Gabriel Moreno turned on an inside fastball for another two-run shot. Just like that, it was 7–1, and the Dodgers were buried.

A two-homer night for Mookie! pic.twitter.com/zst93lLKcn
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 20, 2025

Offensively, there were moments, individual flashes that showed just how potent this lineup still is, but nothing close to a cohesive attack. Mookie Betts homered twice. Shohei Ohtani launched his 17th of the season, reclaiming the league lead in long balls. Yet all three were solo shots, and tellingly, they accounted for the only hits the Dodgers managed off Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt.

No. 17 for 17! pic.twitter.com/3VgBaTCVJz
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) May 20, 2025

Pfaadt wasn’t overpowering; he didn’t record a single strikeout and didn’t induce a single swing-and-miss. But backed by sharp defense, he cruised through six innings, keeping one of baseball’s most dangerous lineups comfortably in check.

The Dodgers scraped together two runs in the ninth to make the scoreline look less brutal, but the damage was long done.

Dodgers Biggest Problem: Injuries

Now sitting at 29–19, the Dodgers are still one of the league’s top teams. But their flaws are starting to show. Their 4.28 ERA ranks 22nd in MLB and is the highest it’s been through this point in a season since 2010. Injuries have stripped away the usual layers of depth that insulate them from this kind of stretch.

The rotation is without Tyler Glasnow, Blake Snell, and Roki Sasaki. The bullpen is patching together outs without Blake Treinen, Evan Phillips, or Kirby Yates. Monday’s opener-by-committee game with Dreyer and Knack wasn’t a one-off; it’s the new norm until reinforcements arrive.

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It’s rare to see the Dodgers look this vulnerable, and even rarer to see them booed in their own ballpark. But such is life over the course of a 162-game season. Even baseball’s juggernauts trip and scrape their knees.

The challenge now is how fast they can get back up. Because even superteams have to survive their slumps…

Dodgers

Mohsin Baldiwala

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Mohsin Baldiwala is a Master’s student in Journalism and freelance content producer who got hooked on baseball through Seinfeld’s hapless George Costanza. The same reason why he’s a Yankees fan. He writes about sports because he believes it can offer a brief escape from the world’s chaos. Even if that means enduring the heartbreak of the 2024 World Series.