This article is a part of Verducci’s View, a new weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more. If you want to be featured in his new mailbag, please email [email protected] with any questions about MLB or his decades in the sport.
The Dodgers just endured their first losing August in 16 years. They hit .241 in the month, making this their first losing August with a batting average that low in 42 years. If they’re not careful, they may be playing themselves into a wild card series against the Padres, whose bullpen makes them especially dangerous in a short series and are decidedly not the 83-win Reds that Los Angeles easily dispatched in the first round last year.
