Dodgers face early gut check, as they lose closer and division lead

SAN FRANCISCO – Wake up, Los Angeles. The baseball season – the real baseball season – has started earlier than expected. More than five months remain before the start of the postseason, but the Dodgers have important games coming up.

Such as their game on Wednesday. Or their series finale against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday. Because a day after they lost their closer , the Dodgers lost their division lead.

A 3-1 defeat to the Giants at Oracle Park on Tuesday erased what remained of what was once a four-game edge in the National League West. The Dodgers are now tied with the San Diego Padres, who refrained from making any significant additions in the offseason as they were up for sale. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said: “I don’t think anyone’s too concerned about the Padres and what they’re doing.

” IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect The Dodgers survived crises in each of their two recent championship seasons, and they could be on the verge of another with Edwin Diaz expected to be sidelined until after the All-Star break. Remove Diaz from the equation and the Dodgers more or less have the same bullpen that was responsible for a midseason slump that resulted in them temporarily relinquishing the division lead to the Padres with five weeks remaining in the regular season last year. Manager Dave Roberts wasn’t about to speak a hypothetical downturn into existence, as he downplayed the possibility that his team was about to be subjected to another gut check.