Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell. The Dodgers have the fourth-best record in baseball. Unfortunately, two of the teams with better records are in the same division.

After that scintillating 8-0 start, the Dodgers have gone 2-4, losing series to the Philadelphia Phillies and Washington Nationals. This has caused great consternation among a segment of the fan base, because, after all, the Dodgers have only 148 games left to right the ship and a 10-4 start is just brutal.

Let’s remember last season. Because some of the same problems are cropping up this season. While there is a whole lot going right, there are some things that have not been working as well. Let’s take a look:

The bottom of the lineup

The Nos. 7-9 hitters have been atrocious. Mainly because of the following (batting average/OB%/SLG %):

Max Muncy, .174/.224/.261
Kiké Hernández, .103/.163/.410
Andy Pages, .171/.306/.341
Miguel Rojas, .125/.160/.125
Austin Barnes, 0 for 10
Chris Taylor, 1 for 7

That’s not very good. Kiké Hernández has four hits, all home runs, which accounts for his slugging percentage. Andy Pages has drawn six walks and hit two homers but has struck out 16 times. Miguel Rojas has one walk, no extra-base hits, no runs and no RBIs. Max Muncy has struck out 21 times in 46 at-bats. And Austin Barnes and Chris Taylor have been, well, Barnes and Taylor.

Let’s take a look at how the 7-9 hitters rank as a group by batting average compared to the other 29 teams:

1. Philadelphia, .299
2. Detroit, .284
3. Texas, .284
4. N.Y. Yankees, .277
5. San Diego, .271
6. Boston, .262
7. St. Louis, .257
8. Cincinnati, .248
9. Arizona, .242
10. San Francisco, .240

We are a third of the way through and haven’t gotten to the Dodgers yet. Let’s skip ahead.

26. Seattle, .192
27. Minnesota, .191
28. Cleveland, .177
29. N.Y. Mets, .153
30. Dodgers, .149

The Dodgers’ 7-9 hitters are 21 for 141 with six doubles, five homers, 11 RBIs, 13 walks and 43 strikeouts.

If you remember, this was a problem last season, with them ranking at or near the bottom for most of the first half. They finished in 17th with a .232 average. They moved into the top 10 if you ranked them by on-base or slugging percentage. But this year they rank 29th in OBP and 24th in slugging.

This will improve a bit when Freddie Freeman returns this weekend. That will allow Tommy Edman to move lower in the lineup, improving things and giving fewer at-bats to the guys dragging things down. By the way, Edman is tied for the NL lead with five homers. Does anyone think he will lead the NL in homers this year? Early season stats are wacky.

Is this something to panic over? Of course not. Things will balance out eventually, and if not, the Dodgers will take steps to improve things. But 14 games is far too soon to make drastic changes, especially when you are 10-4. If they were 4-10, things might look different.

Also keep in mind that batting average can wildly fluctuate this early in the season. Taylor is hitting .143. He he goes two for three in his next start, he’ll be hitting .300. Michael Conforto is hitting .211. If he goes three for four, he’s hitting .262. One person emailed me to say “Shohei Ohtani is suddenly an easy out. Has the league figured him out?” At the time he had gone one for his last 11 and was hitting .268. Since then he has gone six for 13 and is hitting .315. So, putting too much stock in batting average until the end of this month is just asking for an ulcer.

The defense

The Dodgers are a shade below the league average in fielding percentage at .985. They are around average in many defensive metrics. Mookie Betts is a work in progress at shortstop (but still better than you would expect). Max Muncy isn’t exactly Graig Nettles at third base (sorry to bring up ugly memories of the 1978 World Series). But the big concern is Andy Pages, who often looks lost in center field, taking the wrong routes and misplaying balls. For one example, click here. He made a nice catch Wednesday (and also hit a key homer) so it hasn’t all been bad, but at times he makes Billy Ashley look like Willie Mays.

The starting pitching

It didn’t take long for Blake Snell to end up on the IL. He was put on with soreness in his pitching shoulder and won’t throw again until Monday. So it sounds as if he will be out a little while. Tyler Glasnow couldn’t handle the damp conditions and slippery mound in Philadelphia and had to leave his start early. And wanting to give everyone an extra day of rest, the team turned to Justin Wrobelski and Landon Knack, and taking their two starts together, they gave up 13 earned runs in 7-1/3 innings. And the Dodgers won one of those games. Other than that, the starting pitching and bullpen have been pretty solid.

Speaking of Wrobleski, some of you were upset that Dave Roberts left him out there to give up eight runs in five innings. Remember, the days of Tommy Lasorda making managerial moves to try to win every game are over. There will be times when Roberts will leave a starter (or reliever) out there to get hammered in order to preserve the bullpen. Heck, they let Brent Honeywell get hit hard in a World Series game in order to preserve the bullpen. It has worked for them; it’s not going to change.

To sum up, it’s far too soon to worry. In a 162-game season, there are always going to be areas of concern. The Dodgers are on pace to win 116 games. They won’t. The Padres are on pace to win 125 games. They won’t. The White Sox are on pace to lose 133 games. They actually might. So, be glad you aren’t a White Sox fan.

A great way to look at it is this: Despite some flaws, the Dodgers are 10-4. Just think how good they will be when those flaws are corrected.

Sad news

Former Dodgers reliever Octavio Dotel was killed when the roof of a nightclub in the Dominican Republic collapsed Tuesday. At least 221 people died, including another former major leaguer, Tony Blanco, and more than 200 were injured. Dotel pitched in 19 games and had one save for the Dodgers in 2010. He pitched for 13 teams in his 15-season career.

Former Boston star David Ortiz on Dotel: “He was a person whom everyone loved. It’s very hard, very hard, truly.” Ortiz said how he spoke with Dotel almost every day. “He was very funny. Octavio was a guy who was a fighter.”

Former Dodger Pedro Martinez said on Instagram on Tuesday he has family members who were buried in the rubble. According to the Associated Press, the government announced late Wednesday that it was moving into a recovery phase after rescue crews searched for survivors for more than 24 hours. Officials said earlier they had rescued 145 people.

You see things like this happen, and suddenly worrying about the bottom of the lineup seems very trivial indeed.

Torpedo away!

The new big thing in baseball so far this season are torpedo bats, which look like this:

Torpedo baseball bats are displayed.

(Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

As you can see, the barrel of a torpedo bat is larger than that of a regular bat. And yes, it is legal to use a torpedo bat. The Yankees were the first team to use it this season and they have hit 26 homers in 12 games (the Dodgers have 28 in 14 games). No other team has more than 20.

Jack Harris wrote at length about the torpedo bats here. A few key takeaways:

—The fattest part of the barrel is closer to the handle, with the idea of redistributing more mass to an area where some hitters make more frequent contact. The rest of the lumber is rounded into a more tapered shape at the end.

—Canadian bat company B45 is the top maker of the bats. The chief executive of B45? Former Dodgers closer Eric Gagne, who told Harris, “My job was to break bats. Now my job is to make sure the bats don’t break anymore, make sure the ball goes farther. That was my enemy back in the day.”

—More than 50 of B45’s big-league hitters have placed orders for torpedo bats. Max Muncy, who does not get his bats from B45, was the first Dodger to start experimenting with them.

These names seem familiar poll

Every year I do a segment in the newsletter title “These names seem familiar” and every year I hear from some of you that you don’t like it because it is a wall of stats, showing how former Dodgers are doing with their new team. Being the fair-minded, all-around great and humble guy that I am, I thought I would let the reader decide whether to continue it this season or drop it. So, whether you want it to continue or not, please go here and vote. Thanks!

How will the Dodgers do?

We are a couple of weeks into the season, so time for our annual poll on how you think the Dodgers will do. Will they win the World Series? Reach the NLCS and lose? Click here to vote.

Last season’s results:

They will reach the NLCS but lose there, 42.6%
They will win the World Series, 29.3%
They will reach the NLDS but lose there, 16.2%
They will lose in the World Series, 9.6%
They will lose in the wild-card round, 2.1%
They will not make the postseason, 0.2%

Up next

Friday: Chicago (*Matthew Boyd, 1-0, 0.00 ERA) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 1-1, 1.69 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Chicago (Ben Brown, 1-1, 7.71 ERA) at Dodgers (Roki Sasaki, 0-0, 4.15 ERA), 6:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Chicago (TBD) at Dodgers (Tyler Glasnow, 1-0, 6.43 ERA), 4:10 p.m., ESPN, AM 570, KTNQ 1020

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

LA Times Today: Apple’s documentary on Dodgers provides ‘all-access’ look at World Series run

Billie Jean King looked at Hollywood Walk of Fame stars as a kid. Tennis icon now has her own

After ‘honor’ of White House visit, Shohei Ohtani picking up where he left off in 2024

Dodgers celebrated at White House for 2024 World Series title by Trump

Dodgers place starting pitcher Blake Snell on injured list

Mookie Betts will join teammates for Dodgers’ White House visit: ‘This is not about me’

How ‘torpedo’ bats became the fascination of baseball — even for ex-Dodger Eric Gagne

And finally

Don Drysdale on “Up Close with Roy Firestone.” Watch and listen here.