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Now the losing leaves Dodgers with mental hurdle

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Losing weighs on teams. It beats them down mentally. Makes their legs feel a little heavier, makes the breaks seem to always go the other way, makes heads hang just a bit lower.

The Dodgers cannot win right now. They can’t hit, of course, but they just can’t find ways to win.

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They’ve lost eight of their last 10 games. They’re eight games back of the Padres for the division lead, seven back of the Giants for the wild card.

Their season is in real jeopardy. For a team that’s played for the National League pennant the last two years, it is almost a new experience.

Success from those seasons tells them they can still pull this out, but then comes another loss, another missed opportunity.

‘Nobody likes to lose,’ said left-hander Clayton Kershaw. ‘In that sense, I think everybody’s frustrated. At the same time I don’t think anybody’s defeated.

‘We know we still have a lot of games left in our division, and we have a lot of games left against the teams that are ahead of us. So we don’t necessarily have to scoreboard-watch. That’s pretty much the only positive we have before us right now.’

The Dodgers took courage from the success they’d enjoyed within the West this season, but then facing the Padres and Giants in a key 10-game stretch, the Dodgers just went a disappointing 3-7.

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Manager Joe Torre remains convinced the season can be turned around. But days tick away, opportunity becomes more precious. Reality stares back at them.

‘If I need to tell them we need to have a sense of urgency here, then we haven’t got the right guys,’ Torre said.

The calendar reads Aug. 7, the season down to eight weeks. Losing, like winning, can almost feed on itself, can leave a team mentally beaten.

‘I think the mood of the club is fine,’ Torre said. ‘I’m not sure they’re playing with the greatest confidence in the world, because we really haven’t been able to string anything together -- so far, I should say.’

-- Steve Dilbeck

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