Struggles Show Dodgers Were Never Superteam, but They Don't Have to Be

For three weeks now, the Cleveland Indians haven't lost. For nearly three weeks, the Los Angeles Dodgers have barely won.

For the season, the Dodgers still have more wins.

Keep that in mind, and keep in mind that years from now, what happened in August and what has happened in September won't be remembered nearly as much as whatever will happen this October (and the first few days of November). The Indians' 21-game winning streak has been ultra-impressive. The Dodgers' 16 losses in 17 games were ultra-puzzling.

But the Indians were already a real World Series contender, before their winning streak began. The Dodgers are still a real World Series contender, even after they went days without winning a game.

The Dodgers weren't the best team ever, not last month and obviously not this week. But they're going to be in the postseason and they're going there with a strong rotation, a deep and talented lineup and a strong enough bullpen to do the job.

They were never far better than every other team this year, let alone better than every other team all-time. They won more games than they probably should have for nearly four months, and they've lost more games than they should have the last three weeks.

Why did it happen? How could it happen?

It's hardly a satisfying answer to say it's the way baseball works, but it's the way baseball works. No one ever had a satisfying answer for how the 2011 Boston Red Sox could go from the best record in the American League on Sept. 1 to not even making the playoffs. No one ever had a satisfying answer for how the 2007 Colorado Rockies could go from a record that was barely over .500 on Sept. 15 to a 21-1 run that took them all the way to the World Series.

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The Dodgers haven't lost anyone to injury since they won their 90th game before anyone else in the majors had even won 80. They've even gotten Cody Bellinger back from the disabled list since then.

They have the same starting pitchers they did then, the same relievers they had then.

Sure, Curtis Granderson has struggled (3-for-26 with no RBI during the 11-game losing streak), but he was always supposed to be the guy that gave the Dodgers an embarrassment of riches, not the guy they depended on to win. Sure, Yu Darvish had a couple of bad back-to-back starts, giving up five runs and not making it through the fifth inning in each, but the Dodgers had 11 games earlier this season when the starter gave up five and didn't make it through the fifth. And Darvish eased concerns when he pitched seven scoreless innings Wednesday night, as the Dodgers made it two straight wins by beating the San Francisco Giants 4-1.

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If the Dodgers fell apart because Clayton Kershaw got hurt, that would have been a huge concern for October. If they fell apart because Corey Seager tore up his knee or Justin Turner broke his hand, that would have been a problem.

That's not what happened. What happened was that Seager slumped (.525 OPS during the losing streak). Turner hasn't been as good in the second half of the season as he was in the first half. Kershaw didn't make it out of the fourth inning in one start, before returning to form and pitching the Dodgers to a streak-snapping win Tuesday night in San Francisco.

That win, incidentally, clinched a playoff spot for the Dodgers. That night, Kenley Jansen told Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times the incredible run of losing was "just part of baseball."

"I don't care how good the Indians are playing," Jansen said. "I don't care how good the Nationals are playing. We are still the best team in baseball."

The record says he's right.

The records also say no team has ever gone through even a 1-13 stretch and won the World Series. The Dodgers went 1-16 from Aug. 26 through Monday night.

No other team in baseball went 1-16 at any point this year, or last year. Then again, no other team in baseball went 44-7 through any 51-game stretch this year, last year or any year since the 1912 New York Giants.

For what it's worth, the 1912 Giants were never worse than 7-10 in any 17-game stretch. But they didn't win the World Series.

The 2017 Dodgers still could.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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