Through the doom and gloom: Searching for that ray of sunshine in the Dodgers’ start

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And now for some really good Dodgers news: It’s not as bad as it seems.

No, really, it’s not that bad. It can’t possibly be that bad.

Right now the Dodgers can’t hit or pitch. They’re losing attendance. Their owner has his hand out to make payroll. The L.A. police chief thinks safety at the stadium is simply a perception problem. And the team has lost five consecutive games.

Also, the Dodgers have been found responsible for the national debt.

That doesn’t seem like a dark cloud hovering over Dodger Stadium, but a black hole.

Fear not, faithful ones, better days are ahead. Exactly when they’ll arrive I cannot promise, but logic says things have to get better. It’s either that or Armageddon on the diamond.

“When you see a team going really good, they’re usually not that good,” said Manager Don Mattingly. “And when you see a team go really bad, you know they’re not that bad.” See? Not that bad. Not end-of-days bad. Not it’s-the-middle-of-April-and-I-give-up bad.

“We’ve gone bad the last couple of days, but we know our pitching is better than that,” Mattingly said. “And we’re going to be better than that. And there are some days we didn’t score runs, and we’re going to score runs.”

Of course, he said that before the Dodgers went out meekly Saturday for their daily beating at the hand of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Remember: You’re never as good or bad as you seem during any single stretch in a 162-game season.

And that’s all the good news I have today.

-- Steve Dilbeck