Dodgers: 3 Trends That Need to be Reversed In October

The only thing left for the Dodgers to battle for is home-field advantage in the National League and entire Major League Baseball. That means it’s time to look ahead to the postseason.

As fans of other teams often remind us, the Dodgers have won the West five years in a row but have not made it to the World Series in any of those five years. No matter whether it was injury, bad luck or other teams being a team of destiny, the Dodgers were at fault for failing to make the World Series.

This season it felt like the Dodgers were a team of destiny, similar to last year’s Cubs but after a month of struggling the Dodgers no longer seem to have that feeling of destiny. That doesn’t mean they won’t end up going to or winning the World Series, but it does mean that the Dodgers have work to do to finally secure the National League pennant.

Looking at the past three years, there are three trends that the Dodgers need to reverse.

Kershaw needs to be an Ace in October

By this time we have all heard about the playoff struggles of Clayton Kershaw. There is arguably no greater regular season pitcher in the MLB history than Kershaw, but for whatever reason, he has not pitched like an ace for the majority of his postseason career.  While he has had some excellent starts, he has not put together a streak of good ones.  Here’s a look at the past three postseason runs for Kershaw:

2016 – 4.44 ERA, .253 AVG against, two home runs allowed in four starts

2015 – 2.63 ERA. two home runs allowed in only two starts

2014 – 7.82 ERA, three home runs allowed in only two starts

Aside from 2015, Kershaw has had a rough go at it during the past three playoff runs. Although he heroically saved a game last season, he failed to post the stats we are accustomed to seeing from this generation’s greatest starting pitcher.

He has been plagued by the home run ball, and for whatever reason, he seems to run into issues in the seventh inning. Whether this is due to fatigue, or simply getting beat, the Dodgers hope to avoid fatigue issues by using four starters in the NLDS and not letting Kershaw pitch on short rest.

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Another issue that seems to stand out in the playoffs for Kershaw is his struggles against left-handed hitters.

In 2016, left-handed hitters hit .278 off Kershaw compared to a .247 average against right-handed hitters in the postseason. In 2015, the difference was even bigger has lefties hit .263 off Kershaw with two home runs compared to no home runs and a .071 average by righty batters.

While Kershaw dominates lefties in the regular season, they seem to be getting the better of him in the playoffs. Kershaw will need to reverse this trend along with his overall struggles if the Dodgers want to have any chance of winning it all.

Setup relievers have been a nightmare in the Playoffs

Another trend the Dodgers need to reverse this October is the struggles of their bullpen. Last year they regularly used Kenley Jansen for multiple innings and even called on Kershaw to close out one game that Kenley Jansen wasn’t able to. Having to use your ace as a closer in the first round of the playoffs is not a good sign.

Let’s take a look at the key set-up men of the last three playoff bullpens:

2016 – Grant Dayton (8.10 ERA), Joe Blanton (7.88 ERA), Ross Stripling (8.31 ERA)

2015 – Pedro Baez (81.00 ERA), Alex Wood (18.00 ERA), Chris Hatcher (0.00 ERA)

2014 – JP Howell (13.50 ERA), Pedro Baez (7.71 ERA), Brandon League (0.00 ERA)

The irony in the struggles of the Dodgers setup men has been that two of the most hated relievers by fans in recent memory did not allow a single postseason run in Chris Hatcher and Brandon League (albeit in limited action).

Pedro Baez has seemingly struggled every post-season with the exception of last year where he had a 2.57 ERA. Blanton who was the Dodgers primary eighth-inning option last year was absolutely terrible and Grant Dayton scuffled after coming along strong towards the middle of last season.

This season the Dodgers will have Brandon Morrow for the seventh or eighth inning and he has electric stuff.  Hopefully, this will translate to postseason success although he hasn’t been in the playoffs before.

The Dodgers are still sorting through their southpaw relievers in Avilan, Watson, and Cingrani to see who gets the main LOOGY role but the expectation is that Avilan and Watson will get the most usage.

Ryu and Maeda could also become middle relief options in October and then there is the rookie phenom Walker Buehler who could make the postseason roster.

Next: Are Ryu & Maeda X-Factors for this year's playoff run?

All in all these are the three main areas the Dodgers will need to improve on to make a successful championship run. Lets see if they could put their past playoff struggles behind them and bring LA its first World Series title since 1988.