It was around this time last year that the Dodgers’ offense began to cool off.

After a lacklustre performance at bat this week, they can only hope that doesn’t happen again.

Before the Dodgers were eliminated from the 2023 playoffs by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Division Series, the team had already begun to quieten down in September. The declining production of both big stars and key players foreshadowed the lack of action that would prove fatal to the team in October.

The Dodgers recently went through something similar. After a good performance in Arizona, the week went less offensively.

The latest example was the 10-4 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Monday night at Dodger Stadium, with ex-Dodgers Cody Bellinger and Michael Busch outscoring nearly the entire team.

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

The Dodgers didn’t score their first run until the fifth inning and squandered several chances to get back into the game despite facing Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks and his 6.60 ERA, the worst of any MLB starter through 100 innings.

“We had the chances,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “I think we could have gone all year long and unfortunately that’s what happens in baseball when you play 162 games. You can have the chances, but you just don’t get the hits.”

Since the Dodgers scored 32 runs and 52 hits in a blockbuster four-game series against the Diamondbacks earlier this month, they have scored just 23 runs and 45 hits in six games.

In that span, they have struck out 56 batters. They have scored five or more runs only twice. And after appearing to turn a corner at the plate with a healthy lineup for the first time in months, signs of their summer malaise have returned.

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

Alarm bells are not ringing yet. But there are starting to be reasons for concern.

The Dodgers’ biggest problems Monday came 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 continued pursuit of MLB’s first 50-home-run, 50-steal season), the rest of the lineup offered little support.

Max Muncy had no hits and only managed one RBI (a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning) from two bases-loaded at-bats. He now has just two in 18 since early September.

Will Smith failed to continue his three-hit performance on Sunday, continuing his poor performance in the bottom half by going 0-for-5, including a two-runner strikeout in the fifth inning.

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

“I think the bottom half’s production, I’m sure it’s not as bad as it was at the beginning of the season,” said Roberts, who remained confident in an offense that still ranks third in the majors in scoring this season. “I still think we’re in a good position.”

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

Bellinger, the Dodgers’ former rookie of the year and Most Valuable Player award winner, opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the first inning. He hit his second home run as a visiting player at Chavez Ravine to deep right field.

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

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

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

It all amounted to what he called a “pretty big step back” for Buehler after some encouraging performances in his previous two starts. The right-handed pitcher finished the night with five earned runs in five-plus innings, striking out just four batters while allowing nine hits.

“I screwed us from the beginning,” said Buehler, who now has a 5.95 ERA this season and a 9.69 ERA in the first innings. “Three runs in the first inning definitely sucked the energy out of the building. … That’s a lot to ask of the rest of our guys to pull me out of a hole every game.”

Despite this, the Dodgers had chances to come back.

They got the bases loaded in the third inning, but could only manage a tie.

They scored twice in the fifth and seventh innings — Betts hit a home run in the latter inning, his seventh in 26 games since returning from a broken hand — but missed chances to score more in both innings.

“Just write it down on one of those days,” Freeman said. “Come back tomorrow and get them.”

The good news for the Dodgers: Their biggest stars are still scoring.

In addition to his seven home runs, Betts also has a .316 batting average and 26 RBIs since coming off the injured list.

Freeman, still playing with a broken middle finger in his right hand, has completed 11 of 33 attempts with seven hits since taking a three-game break in late August.

Ohtani also continues to perform, hitting .300 since Aug. 21 as he chases his third MVP award.

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

“Every day we come with a game plan to win that game and do our best,” Freeman said. “Today it just didn’t happen.”