Dodgers All-Star Puts Rest Of MLB On Notice With Stern Message

The Los Angeles Dodgers have hit a slump. After the All-Star break, this team has been uncharacteristically mediocre. They lost two games to the Detroit Tigers, two to the Houston Astros, one to the San Francisco Giants, and most recently, two to the San Diego Padres.

The Dodgers are 8-7 after the All-Star break: a record not befitting a top-tier team. Their last loss was a brutal beatdown at the hands of the Padres. The Friars lit up Clayton Kershaw en route to eight runs and never looked back.

After the series loss to the Padres, All-Star catcher Will Smith said that this team will eventually bounce back.

"We’ll come out of it," Smith said, per Juan Toribio. "No doubt about it. We’re the Dodgers. We’re the best team in baseball."

Those are strong words from Will Smith. It sounds ridiculous now when the Dodgers are 5-5 in their last ten games and 1-4 in their last five contests, however, this LA team, on paper, should be one of the best.

With Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts, this Dodgers team should be steamrolling the competition. And for a while, they did. They had a terrific start to the season that had fans dreaming of another pennant.

However, injuries to their pitching staff and Betts have hurt the Dodgers significantly. Betts is at least close to returning, but the team is still not in a good spot relative to the expectations for them.