Dodgers: 3 Trends That Need to be Reversed In October

Offensive Struggles 

Besides Justin Turner, the Dodger offense has struggled as a whole over the past few playoff appearances. While there have been some issues with their pitching, many of the issues stem from lack of offensive production. Let’s take a look at the last three playoffs:

2016 – .249 AVG, .728 OPS, .227 RISP Average

2015 – .238 AVG, .626 OPS, .261 RISP Average

2014 – .292 AVG, .695 OPS, .195 RISP Average

Besides 2014, the Dodgers have struggled to get many hits and even when they hit for a good average in 2014 they still struggled mightily with runners in scoring position. I didn’t list the average for RISP with two outs, but as you can probably imagine the average is even worse.

While some will argue that the numbers will be down in the playoffs since the top three pitchers from every team are used, it still doesn’t excuse the Dodgers struggles, especially in the clutch when they have an opportunity to drive in runs.

For 2016, two of the Dodgers top hitters struggled as Seager hit .205 in the post-season and Adrian Gonzalez hit .195. That is unacceptable from the second and fourth hitters in a playoff lineup.

Something to note is that Seager also struggled his rookie year in 2015 when he only hit .183 in the playoffs. So this year Seager will look to shrug off his playoff struggles despite his elbow injury.

Justin Turner has been flaming hot in the playoffs no matter what year it is. He has a career .357 batting average in the postseason with an OPS over .1000. Guys this year like Chris Taylor, Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager need to help Turner out this October.

If 1-4 in the order can reverse the struggles of the previous years, then this might be the Dodgers’ year.