SAN DIEGO —
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.
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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.