LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts struggles to begin his answer, a reflection of his reluctance to give voice to his own diagnosis.

“I just think we didn’t, we haven’t – I just don’t think we’ve put in the focus,” he said. “To be quite honest, I just don’t think we had the urgency or focus that we needed to have. That’s just the bottom line – because when the standings started to get interesting then our guys certainly have ramped up their quality of at-bat. The offensive performance has ticked up.

“It’s not something I like saying. But I just don’t see any other reason – given the talent we have – why we have been a bottom-five offense for two months. For our talent, that’s just inexcusable.”

Bottom five is only a slight exaggeration. But the fall has been precipitous.

When games ended on Ju

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