Clayton Kershaw struggles, Padres sweep Dodgers to close gap in NL West

The Dodgers have yet to receive the boosts of their five trade deadline player acquisitions.

Over the final two months of the season, they’ll need the reinforcements more urgently than they could have imagined.

After an 8-1 loss to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night — in which Michael Kopech became the first, and to this point only, new Dodger to make his team debut — the Dodgers suddenly find themselves in a compelling division race.

Up by as many as nine games in the National League West as recently as last month, the Dodgers’ two-game sweep at the hands of the red-hot Padres this week leaves them just 4 ½ games up in the standings entering August — the narrowest the Dodgers’ division lead has been since May 4.

Getting here required a calamity of errors, misfortunes and overall mediocrity from the Dodgers throughout a porous July — posting a losing record in a full month (11-13) for the first time since April 2018.

During July, the team ranked just 19th in the majors in total runs (averaging 4.3 per game) and a lowly 27th in staff ERA (5.36).

“Overall, the pitching in general, we just haven’t had the effectiveness, the command,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It just puts a lot of stress on the offense.”

The continued absences of Mookie Betts, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Max Muncy didn’t help, either (Freddie Freeman has also missed the last five games on the family emergency list). Nor did a leaky late-game bullpen and lack of consistent starting pitching.

“It’s part of it,” catcher Will Smith said. “We’ll come out of it. No doubt about it. We’re the Dodgers. We’re the best team in baseball.”

There were times this year that might have been true. But now, the Dodgers are looking less and less like the best team in their own division.

While the Dodgers sputtered, the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks grew increasingly large in the rear-view mirror. The Padres have won nine of their last 10 games, making up four games on the Dodgers in the last eight days alone. The Diamondbacks have been even hotter, going an MLB-best 17-8 in July to sit just 5 ½ games back in third place.

Read more: L.A. native Jack Flaherty excited by ‘special’ Dodgers opportunity, downplays back concerns

The Dodgers are still the odds-on favorites to win the division, entering Wednesday with an 83% probability of finishing in first place, according to Fangraphs’ computer models.

But their margin for error is quickly evaporating — underscoring their need for alterations to the roster.

Help should arrive when the team resumes play this weekend in Oakland. Jack Flaherty, the centerpiece of the team’s deadline haul, will make his team debut on Saturday. Newly acquired utilityman Amed Rosario and center fielder Kevin Kiermaier should also be with the club by then (neither arrived in time for this week’s series at Petco Park).

Only Tommy Edman, another super utility player, will have to wait for his debut, as he continues to rehab a sprained ankle that, when coupled with offseason wrist surgery, has kept him sidelined for the entirety of the year.

Still, exactly how all the new pieces will fit remains a question.

While the Dodgers have ample defensive versatility, none of their three new hitters have an above-league-average OPS+ in their career (only Rosario, who was batting .307 with the Tampa Bay Rays earlier this season, has one this season).

Even with Kopech, who struck out the side in the fifth inning Wednesday while flashing 100 mph velocity, the hierarchy of a slumping bullpen remains unsettled.

And not even Flaherty’s arrival will solve all the questions facing an injury-ravaged starting rotation — one that Wednesday suffered through one of Clayton Kershaw’s worst career starts.

In his second outing back from offseason shoulder surgery, Kershaw gave up seven runs (three earned) in just 3 ⅔ innings. He yielded six hits. He walked a batter and committed a run-scoring defensive error. Most jarringly, he failed to record a strikeout for the first time in his 424 regular-season starts.

“There was a lot of things I was missing,” Kershaw said. “Just wasn’t executing. Wasn’t throwing really anything where I wanted to. Frustrating overall.”

For as bad as his stat line was, the underwhelming nature of Kershaw’s stuff might have been an even bigger cause for alarm.

The left-hander averaged less than 90 mph with his fastball, a quick drop from his season debut last week. Of their 41 swings against him, the Padres only whiffed twice, looking unfazed by Kershaw’s trademark slider and curveball.

“It’s part of the process,” Roberts said, chalking up some of Kershaw’s woes to post-rehab rust. “I just don’t think that anyone can expect him to come back and be lights out every start out, or certainly after two starts.”

Still, it was the kind of night that will reignite doubts about Kershaw’s ability to be counted on as an integral member of the rotation the rest of the year (or as a potential postseason starter).

And it left yet another question that the team’s forthcoming wave of reinforcements might be better suited to answer.

Read more: Hernández: Even with Jack Flaherty, the Dodgers still have significant problems

In addition to the Dodgers’ five deadline pickups, the team has numerous injured players getting closer to recovery.

Betts (hand fracture) has started taking batting practice in recent days, according to Roberts, and could rejoin the club in a matter of weeks.

Yamamoto (strained rotator cuff) is scheduled to throw his first bullpen session Friday, which would put him on track to return in roughly a month.

Muncy (oblique strain) finally had a “breakthrough” this week, as Roberts described it, thanks to a recent “chiropractic adjustment” that has gotten his body “back in line.” He is expected to resume swings Thursday.

A regiment of relievers are on the mend, too, with Michael Grove, Brusdar Graterol and Ryan Brasier continuing their minor-league rehab assignments (Grove is furthest along, and could be back by next week’s homestand).

Given the Dodgers’ suddenly precarious place in the standings, each potential addition could be crucial down the stretch.

For a team that once seemed to be cruising toward October, they’ll now need all the help they can get just to stay atop the standings.

“We’re gonna get back to health,” Roberts said. “But we still gotta go out there and play 27 outs.”

Ryan stays; Wrobleski optioned

In order to add Flaherty to the active roster Wednesday, the Dodgers had a decision to make at the bottom of their rotation.

River Ryan or Justin Wrobleski?

The Dodgers elected Ryan, keeping the hard-throwing right-hander over his fellow rookie counterpart. While Ryan will make his third career start in Oakland on Sunday, Wrobleski was optioned after posting a 4.05 ERA in his first four career starts.

“It was tough,” Roberts said of the decision. “I think we just wanted to see a little bit more from River. But Justin did a fantastic job, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him back up here at some point.”

Buehler, Miller updates

Walker Buehler and Bobby Miller are also options to rejoin the Dodgers rotation in the coming weeks, but not before each makes at least one more start with triple-A Oklahoma City the next two nights.

Buehler (on the injured list with a hip injury) is expected to pitch Thursday, while Miller (demoted before the All-Star break after struggling in his return from a shoulder injury) is scheduled to go Friday.

Both pitchers have struggled during their time with Oklahoma City lately. And on Wednesday, Roberts was asked if the club would consider moving either to the bullpen.

“The honest answer is, we just want to get these guys back to performing and having success,” Roberts said. “Once we get to that point, then we can have a conversation. But I think that conversation, I still think we’re a ways away from that.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.