Don Mattingly cites lack of chemistry as problem for Los Angeles Dodgers

The Los Angeles Dodgers head to Coors Field for a weekend series with the Colorado Rockies starting on Friday night. It turns out neither team is playing particularly well.

More from Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers are just one game over .500, disappointing by their standards. They face a Rockies team that has lost seven straight games and surrendered 28 runs in their last two affairs (not a type-o). Both teams are feeling additional heat because of the outstanding play of the San Francisco Giants on top of their division (39-21 record).

The stakes are higher for the Dodgers, which explains the numerous rants from manager Don Mattingly in recent days. At one point he disgustedly told reporters to go ask the players what was wrong. Then he described their play as…ah hem…fertilizer.

Now it is team chemistry, or a lack thereof, that is on Mattingly’s mind. As quoted by Mark Saxon of ESPN LA:

"“It seems like we’re talking so much about one guy or another guy or this or that instead of us being focused on winning a game and how we can win a game and what can we do to win a game. I think when we were able to start putting things together last year, you felt a real, true team focus, just a collective group.“It’s the thing we talk about when guys start throwing all the numbers out, all these things … One thing you can’t measure is that feeling you have as a team when everybody’s playing together and everybody’s going in one direction.”"

This brings us to the question of the day: does chemistry create winning, or is it the other way around? Here’s betting that the Dodgers’ talent wins more games in the long run, and here’s betting that they then all of a sudden feel like their chemistry is awesome.

Just a hunch.

Home/Los Angeles Dodgers