Around this time last year, the Dodgers offense began to cool off.

After their sluggish performance at the plate this week, they can only hope that something like this doesn’t happen again.

Before the Dodgers were eliminated from the 2023 playoffs by sweeping the National League Division Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team’s hitting power began to take a hit in September, when declining performance from both the big stars and supporting cast foreshadowed the lack of offensive production that would prove to be the team’s undoing in October.

The Dodgers recently experienced something similar: an exuberant show in Arizona was followed by a week of subdued offense.

The most recent example was a 10-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night at Dodger Stadium, in which ex-Dodgers Cody Bellinger and Michael Busch nearly scored more points than their entire former team.

In the first four innings alone, Bellinger and Busch had three hits, a home run each, and a total of four RBIs against Walker Buehler.

The Dodgers, on the other hand, didn’t score their first run until the fifth inning and missed several opportunities to get back into the game – even though they faced Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks and his ERA of 6.60, the worst of any MLB starter with 100 innings.

“We had the opportunities,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “I think we could do it during the year, but unfortunately that’s what happens in baseball when you play 162 games. You can have the opportunities, but you just don’t get the right hits.”

Since scoring 32 runs and 52 hits in a winning four-game series against the Diamondbacks earlier this month, the Dodgers have managed just 23 runs and 45 hits in the next six games.

During that time, they’ve struck out 56 times. They’ve scored five or more runs only twice. And after they seemed to have turned the game around with a healthy lineup for the first time in months, signs of their mid-summer malaise have returned.

“I think offensively the first couple innings were definitely forgettable,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I thought (after) calibration … we had better at-bats and got the walks when we needed them, took (Hendricks) out of the game and pressured her pen. We just couldn’t get that hit to really put up several crooked numbers.”

No alarm bells are ringing yet. But there are initial reasons for concern.

The Dodgers’ biggest problems on Monday were at the bottom of the batting order.

While Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freeman combined for five hits and five walks – Ohtani also stole his 47th base of the season in his quest for the first MLB season with 50 home runs and 50 steals – the rest of the lineup offered little support.

Max Muncy went hitless and had just one RBI (a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning) in two at-bats with the bases loaded, making him just two of 18 RBIs since the beginning of September.

Will Smith couldn’t build on his three-hit performance on Sunday, continuing his second-half slump with an 0-for-five line that included a strikeout with two runners on board in the fifth inning.

Tommy Edman had two hits, while Gavin Lux, Chris Taylor and Miguel Rojas each hit a single. As a team, however, the Dodgers (86-58) were only two of seven runs away with runners in scoring position and left 10 runners on base — not nearly enough on a night when they trailed 3-0 after the first inning and 7-2 at the bottom of the sixth.

“I think the bottom half performance is not as bad as it was earlier in the season,” Roberts said, maintaining his confidence in an offense that still ranks third in the major leagues in scoring this season. “I still think we’re in a good position.”

But at least on Monday, the Cubs (74-70) were simply better.

Bellinger, the Dodgers’ former Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player award winner, opened the scoring with a two-run homer on the first pitch in the first inning and hit his second home run as a guest player at Chavez Ravine deep into the right outfield.

Cody Bellinger circles third base after hitting a two-run home run for the Chicago Cubs in the first inning on Monday.

(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Busch, the former Dodgers prospect who was traded to Chicago last offseason, scored the next two runs for the Cubs, hitting an RBI single in the first inning and then clearing the short wall in left with a solo home run to opposite field in the fourth.

For Buehler, it was all a “pretty big step back,” as he put it, after two encouraging performances in his previous two starts. The right-hander finished the night with five earned runs in five-plus innings, striking out just four batters while allowing nine hits.

“I messed us up from the beginning,” said Buehler, who has a 5.95 ERA this season and a 9.69 first-inning ERA. “Obviously three runs in the first inning kind of sapped the energy out of the building… That’s a lot to ask of the other guys, pulling me out of a hole every game.”

Nevertheless, the Dodgers had chances to catch up.

They had all the bases loaded in the third inning, but came back empty-handed.

They scored in the fifth and seventh innings respectively – Betts hit a home run in the latter, his seventh in 26 games since returning from a broken hand – but missed opportunities to extend the lead in both innings.

“Put it down to one of these days,” Freeman said. “Come back tomorrow and pick her up.”

The good news for the Dodgers: Their biggest stars are still in batting action.

In addition to his seven home runs, Betts has also posted a .316 batting average and 26 RBIs since being released from the injured list.

Freeman, who is still playing despite a broken right middle finger, has given up 11 of 33 runs with seven walks since his three-game layoff in late August.

Ohtani also continues to be in top form, posting a .300 batting average since August 21 as he looks for his third MVP award.

But if the Dodgers thought their problems with a top-heavy lineup were a thing of the past, Monday’s loss – in which they were without Teoscar Hernández for the third straight game because of a bruised foot – was a familiar reminder of how quickly things can change.

“Every day we have a plan to win the game and play our best,” Freeman said. “Today it just didn’t happen.”