Dave Roberts is cracking down on struggling players but Dodgers fans aren’t buying it

Dave Roberts has been uncharacteristically critical of his team over the last two months, as the Dodgers have seen their NL West division lead — nine games on July 3 — shrink down to within three games over the past three weeks.

LA's series against the Blue Jays in early August seems to have opened the floodgates, when a cavalcade of poor defense and a failure to hit when it mattered led to an embarrassing loss in the finale. Later that month, a series split against the Rockies and a loss in the finale that came as a direct result of a Teoscar Hernández fumble in right field led to Roberts directly calling him out.

Hernández has been the subject of a lot more criticism than he might be used to since that game. Dodgers fans' reactions to the error were probably overblown, but his struggles at the plate since then haven't done him any favors.

On Sunday, Roberts chose to bench Hernández for the Dodgers' series finale against the Diamondbacks, a game that they won by a single run to avoid being swept.

"I think he clearly hasn't handled right-handed pitching. A two-day reset could help," Roberts said of Hernández. "He's an everyday guy, but where we're at, you've got to perform to be out there every single day."

Roberts was pressed on whether or not that mentality extended to left field (no one named Michael Conforto explicitly, but fans could draw an easy conclusion). He said, "Yeah, it does."

Dave Roberts benches Teoscar Hernández, sends warning to Michael Conforto after Dodgers' series loss to Diamondbacks

Fans are eagle-eyed for any sign that the Dodgers might get rid of Conforto, but he was still out there in left field the day that Hernández got benched (he grounded out and walked before being replaced by Kiké Hernández). Hernández's struggles have been pretty severe (he's hitting .130 with a .424 OPS over seven games), but Conforto is sitting at .190/.628 on the season, and he still makes his way into lineups even when the Dodgers have better options. Hernández has proved his worth to the team, Conforto hasn't.

Roberts can threaten his playing time all he wants, and he has benched him when his performance has been truly awful, but Dodgers fans would much prefer to see Conforto booted off of the roster altogether. The threats have been recurring, but Conforto has still played in over 80% of the Dodgers' regular season games so far.

Roberts might be cracking down on his players publicly, but how much does a one- or two-day reset matter if it's the only "punishment" a player who shouldn't be on the roster at all will face?

There's still time for the Dodgers to dump Conforto, even though hope is slowly diminishing. Dodgers fans can't imagine this guy batting fifth for LA in the postseason (like he did on Sunday), but the team seems set on making that a reality.