Dodgers chased away the Sunday Scaries

Most people do not like Sunday, as they tend to fear the imminent return to work on Monday. Personally, I have never understood such fear, as barring something quite extraordinary, Sunday comes the same time each week. But in one of those weird quirks of baseball, this season the Dodgers have been absolutely dreadful on Sunday this year.

It did not matter if the Dodgers were at home or on the road, the end result for games on Sunday this year have been some of the worst losses of the year.

In fact, until the Dodgers thumped the Padres on Sunday, the Dodgers had lost the previous ten straight games on Sunday. The Dodgers last beat the San Diego Padres 4-0 on May 14, a period of 83 calendar days between wins on Sunday. Before going forward, let us look back at the ten straight Sunday losses, if only for this poor traveling correspondent’s sanity because I was at a few of these. You will likely notice a theme.

The Terrible Ten

• May 21 — Cardinals 10, Dodgers 5. Clayton Kershaw had his shortest start of the year and the bullpen collapsed like an overdone soufflé.
• May 28 — Rays 11, Dodgers 10. Absolute insanity. The game was tied at seven after three innings. Most of you were asleep — I was certainly not!
• June 4 — Yankees 4, Dodgers 1. Bobby Miller dealt, but the bullpen did not. ESPN ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ thought it was an episode of CSI or Law and Order, examining Aaron Judge’s impromptu attempt at cosplaying as the Kool-Aid Man.
• June 11 — Phillies 7, Dodgers 3. The Dodgers had a bullpen game — it did not go very well.
• June 18 — Giants 7, Dodgers 3. The “Michael was at the Coliseum game and missed the collective meltdown of Tony Gonsolin and the Dodgers” game.
• June 25 — Astros 6, Dodgers 5 (11 innings). The Dodgers lost in extra innings, losing yet again when Freddie Freeman reaches a milestone with his 2,000th hit. (see: his 300th home run in St. Louis)
• July 2 — Royals 9, Dodgers 1. The Dodgers lose a series to the second-worst team in baseball in 2023.
• July 9 — Intermission!
• July 16 — Mets 2, Dodgers 1 (10 innings). The Dodgers leave a small village in Queens and poor Nick Robertson is (figuratively) never seen again. Everyone hated the weather but me.
• July 23 — Rangers 8, Dodgers 4. Emmet Sheehan was not awesome; it did not matter he was part of a team. Eight unanswered runs will do that.
• July 30 — Reds 9, Dodgers 0. In July, the Dodgers starting pitchers’ indolence was inefficacious! (It means that they were terrible!)

Truly, one could have done a myriad of other more productive things on Sunday these past three months that would have been far more enjoyable than watching poor, frustrating baseball.

But in a weird quirk of baseball, the Dodgers are actually undefeated against the Padres on Sundays this year, winning all three attempts (May 7, May 14, and August 6). Overall, the Dodgers are 5-13 on Sundays this year as the Dodgers only beat the Padres, the Cubs (April 23), and the Cardinals (April 30).

Eight days a week

The Dodgers’ performance on Sundays this year, raised a question for me: just how have they done on the other days of the week?

• Mondays: 8-3
• Tuesdays: 13-4
• Wednesdays: 7-9
• Thursdays: 8-2
• Fridays: 10-9
• Saturdays: 13-6

The Dodgers usually have Mondays and Thursdays off. I did not notice a pattern of wins and losses when looked at by the day of the week. As far as I am able to tell, the recently broken streak is just a quirk of happenstance.

What’s next?

The Dodgers have eight games left on Sunday during the regular season in 2023, including the regular season finale at San Francisco. Half of them are at home, and half are on the road. Two of these games are currently scheduled to be breakfast baseball.

• Next Sunday, vs. COL
• August 20, vs. MIA
• August 27, at BOS (10:35 a.m. PT) — I will be sitting on the Green Monster
• September 3, vs. ATL
• September 10, at WAS (10:35 a.m. PT)
• September 17, at SEA — I will be in attendance
• September 24, vs. SF
• October 1, at SF (regular-season finale)

As to what will happen is anyone’s guess. Here’s hoping that the last eight regular-season Sundays go better than the previously stretch before yesterday.