The Los Angeles Dodgers entered their July 23 trip to Washington with the best record in baseball. Sixteen days later, they have one of the worst marks in the sport — a reversal so sharp that even the team’s own players have struggled to explain it.
When the Los Angeles Dodgers walked into the White House on July 23 to celebrate their second consecutive World Series title, there was little reason to believe anything but more winning lay ahead. The team held the best record in Major League Baseball by a comfortable margin, with an 11.5-game lead in the National League West and a roster many considered the most talented in the sport.
Manager Dave Roberts stood before President Trump that day and made a promise as much as a prediction: “We’re going for a three-peat.”
Sixteen days later, that promise looks considerably harder to keep.
The Numbers Tell the Story
Entering the White House visit, the Dodgers sat at 65-38. As of Saturday, August 8, they are 69-47, a stretch of just 4 wins against 9 losses since the celebration in the Rose Garden. In that same span, the team was swept in back-to-back series, first by the Boston Red Sox, then by the Chicago Cubs, pushing their losing streak to a season-worst six games before a narrow loss to Arizona extended the skid further.
A Visit That Was Never Just About Baseball
For a significant part of the Dodgers’ fan base, this year’s trip to Washington carried weight well beyond the ceremony itself. The team’s Latino fans, who have formed the backbone of its support since Mexican-born pitcher Fernando Valenzuela’s rise in the 1980s, had spent more than a year watching the organization navigate an increasingly fraught relationship with its own community.
The tension traces back to June 2025, when ICE agents attempted to use Dodger Stadium’s parking lots before a game, prompting the team to publicly deny them entry and drawing protesters to the stadium gates who accused the franchise of not doing enough to stand with immigrant families. The team later pledged $1 million toward assistance for families affected by immigration enforcement, an amount some fans and community organizers dismissed as insufficient given the team’s resources. By the time the 2025 World Series ended, immigrant-rights groups including the National Day Laborer Organizing Network were formally petitioning the Dodgers to skip the White House visit altogether, arguing the team “cannot stay silent as our families and neighbors face violence, detention, and deportation.” Days before Opening Day this year, fans gathered outside the stadium again, this time demanding the team divest from companies tied to immigration detention centers.
The Dodgers went anyway. Every player who made the trip, alongside Roberts, framed the visit as tradition rather than politics, a position that satisfied some fans and further alienated others already frustrated by what they saw as the organization’s reluctance to take a clearer stand.
What’s Actually Wrong on the Field
The on-field collapse has nothing to do with any of that. Since July 1, the Dodgers have averaged just 4.18 runs per game, one of the lowest marks in the majors, while their bullpen has posted one of the worst earned run averages in baseball over that stretch. The bigger issue is health: Shohei Ohtani has been unable to pitch because of a knee and biceps injury, Blake Snell has been out since May 9 with an elbow issue, and Tyler Glasnow has been sidelined since early May with a back injury.
A Cushion Still Intact, But Shrinking
For now, the freefall hasn’t cost Los Angeles its place atop the NL West. The Dodgers remain in first place, though the massive lead that made their postseason path feel like a formality in July has narrowed considerably, with both Arizona and San Diego closing the gap during the losing stretch.
