This is one bad hangover.
Two days after one of the most devastating losses in franchise history, the flattened Dodgers stayed down, stared up, and watched the Houston Astros continue to swagger their way through this World Series.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it became Texas-sized bad, the Dodgers following their Game 2 collapse with a Game 3 meltdown Friday night in a 5-3 loss at Minute Maid Park that took the locals back to their dark side.
Remember that team that went 52-9 at one point this summer? Well, these were the guys that went 1-16.
Remember the team that rode Clayton Kershaw to a Series opening win? That team is now trailing two games to one and must rely on postseason newbie Alex Wood to pull them out of the hole against Houston’s Charlie Morton in Game 3 Saturday night here.
“The Dodgers have a lot left in the tank, this series is far from over, we’re going to come back from this,’’ said Enrique Hernandez afterward in a second consecutive quiet clubhouse.
On Friday night, this was awfully ugly.
This was starting pitcher Yu Darvish never getting comfortable, never acting engaged and, frankly, barely even showing up.
This was the defense recording a new statistic that could be called a triple-bobble — they committed one throwing error, one fielding error and blew one big throw.
This was an offense that collected only four hits while botching it badly on the bases.