There are tough losses, bad losses, and then there are losses like yesterday’s. Tough losses are usually close games that can go either way; they hurt, but you hold your head up high because you played a good ball game. Bad losses are when a team gets killed; these are usually the easy ones to forget because once down 10-0 in the 5th inning, you’ve already forgotten about it. And then there are losses like yesterday’s: completely flat, uneventful, and hard to hold your head up after it. Not one great play, not one good hit, nothing to really give the fans (nor themselves) anything to cheer about - yet they were within arms reach the entire game and couldn't figure it out.

The Dodgers were down 1-0 in the 2nd inning, then 2-0 in the 4th inning, and then 4-0 in the 8th. They gave up 2 homeruns (which seemingly was the story all series long - the D-Backs had 6 homeruns in the 3 game series) and could really never spark anything offensively themselves. They recorded just two hits, one of which was a bleeder up the middle by the pitcher, Fife.

Despite adding Ramirez and Shane Victorino, who made his Dodger debut on the final game of the D-Back series, the Dodgers looked lifeless. And that’s somewhat surprising since they just came off of a 3 game sweep against the Giants to put them at first place again.

The upside is that this already happened and that they’ll have today as a day off to reflect on it. Their team is without a doubt better than it was before the trade deadline and it’s just a matter of being comfortable up there and executing - something that they’ve proven can be done time and again.

The Dodgers now host the Cubs for 3 games and seek to gain ground on the Giants, who are 1 game in front of them, and hope to add some separation between themselves and the D-Backs, who are within just 1.5 of the Dodgers.

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