Los Angeles Dodgers veteran infielder Miguel Rojas had a message for his team amid their stretch of unfortunate results over the past few weeks.
“I feel like, as an offense, we’re putting a little bit too much pressure on ourselves, because we feel the necessity of winning. And we’re really forgetting about the most important part, which is playing for each other and having some joy when we play this game,” Rojas said.
“This is my personal opinion. I feel like ever since we started playing poorly a couple months ago, the pressure and frustration has been building up on the team. And I don’t see anybody smiling and having a good time. We all know, when you’re losing baseball games it’s not that fun. But I feel like we have to find a way to put everything in perspective. We’re still in first place. We’re still two games ahead of the Padres. We should be able to have some fun while we’re playing the game, and kind of relax a little bit more. Because I think when this team is together like that, we’re really hard to beat.”
The Dodgers are 3-7 over their last 10 games, but their struggles go back much further than that. They led the NL West by as many as nine games this season, however, they threw the lead away and allowed the San Diego Padres back into the picture.
After some back and forth, the Dodgers are on top by one game, but have lost five straight games against losing teams.
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“When you’re not winning games, it’s not fun,” Rojas continued. “You’re not going out there having the same joy, the same fun, when you’ve been playing poorly for over two months. We all know that. It’s frustrating. It’s embarrassing. I feel like, as a team, we know what we’re capable of. We’re playing under the threshold, the goal that we have. But at the end of the day, we gotta put all that aside and remember that, it’s going to be a battle. We have over 20 games left, and we have to find some joy and some motivation to come to the ballpark. Not just to, ‘I gotta do my job.’ We have to come here and enjoy ourselves around the clubhouse, regardless of the situation and regardless of, like, this sweep.
“It sucks. We’re not feeling really good about it. But we have to be able to turn the page and come tomorrow with a better attitude. Not just when you’re stepping in to play, it’s all business and all that, but we have to find a way to enjoy the game a little bit more.”
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