Dodgers looking beatable as problems stack up

Code red.Five-alarm fire.DEFCON 1.Any term used to describe a crisis could be applied to the Dodgers right now, and that would be the case even if owner Mark Walter wasn’t under federal investigation.Problems are stacking up, and with only a little more than a month remaining in the regular season, who knows if the Dodgers will be able to solve them before the start of the playoffs.The Dodgers have offensive problems.They have defensive problems.

They have bullpen problems.And in the wake of losing their first two games of their three-game series against the Atlanta Braves, they could soon have postseason bracket problems.The concerns have become pronounced enough to where manager Dave Roberts has started to back off his recent tough-love approach, probably because maintaining that demeanor under these circumstances would create an overly negative atmosphere. “We had opportunities,” Roberts told reports at Truist Park following his team’s 6-5 loss on Wednesday.The offense is stuck in neutral, the broken hand suffered last week by center fielder Andy Pages complicating the team’s efforts to emerge from an extended slump.In Pages and catcher Will Smith, the Dodgers are missing two premium hitters who play premium defensive positions.

Pages has been replaced by Alek Thomas and Will Smith by Hunter Feduccia and Ben Rortvedt, and at both positions, the substitutes represent major offensive downgrades.Smith is on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment and should have about a month of major league game time to develop a rhythm in the batter’s box for the postseason.Pages won’t have any such luxury, as he could miss the remainder of the regular season.Pages, 25, and Smith, 31, are particularly valuable to these Dodgers because some of their more experienced players are in obvious decline.

Mookie Betts remains up and down, Freddie Freeman hasn’t homered since Independence Day, and Teoscar Hernández has basically been a Mendoza Line hitter for the last ...