Shohei Ohtani Says Dodgers Are 'Doing Everything in Our Power' to End Struggles

The defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers are in an unfamiliar position after falling out of first place in the National League West for the first time since April 27.

After surprisingly being swept by the Los Angeles Angels, the Dodgers (68-53) now trail the San Diego Padres (69-52) by one game ahead of their three-game series this weekend. It was just over a month ago that the Dodgers held a nine-game lead in the NL West and appeared to be on their way to their 12th division title in the last 13 years.

Despite the recent struggles by Los Angeles, the team's stars aren't panicking just yet.

"Obviously, it doesn't feel good to fall into second place and to lose a lot of these games," Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani said through an interpreter after Wednesday's 6-5 loss at Angel Stadium, per ESPN's Alden Gonzalez. "We're doing everything in our power, having close meetings, doing everything that we can to try to right the ship. We just have to do a better job."

The Dodgers have won just 12 of their last 33 games and will be riding a four-game losing streak into their series against the Padres. The division rivals played a contentious four-game series in June that culminated with a benches-clearing incident in the finale that saw Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and Padres manager Mike Shildt going at one another.

Still, the Dodgers are confident in their chances to turn things around. Star shortstop Mookie Betts said the team won't overhype the importance of this weekend's series.

"It's big," he said, "but it kind of is what it is. We can't make it more than what it is. It's another series in August. Obviously, we all know it's big and X, Y and Z, but we can't make it that way. We have to just look at it as the same game as today and play our game and not try to get too high or too low."