LOS ANGELES — Kiké Hernandez tried to put it in perspective after the Dodgers dropped two of three in Washington earlier this week.

“At some point, we were going to play (bad) baseball, and it just seemed like this was the week to do that,” Hernandez said.

The week hasn’t ended yet.

Pete Crow-Armstrong hit two of the Chicago Cubs’ three home runs as they beat the Dodgers 4-2 Sunday afternoon, taking two of three in the weekend series.

The Dodgers have lost three consecutive series, dropping two of three in Philadelphia and Washington before returning home to face the Cubs. It’s the first time the Dodgers have lost three consecutive series since they dropped two of three each to the San Diego Padres, Washington Nationals and New York Mets last April 12-21.

“I think it’s just a bumpy two weeks,” Mookie Betts said. “We’ve got a long time. We’ve got a long season to go. A lot can happen. This isn’t the first time we’ve sucked for two weeks. It just happens that it’s right now.

“If we panic, things get worse. If you don’t panic, it looks like we don’t care. So what are we supposed to do?”

They’re supposed to win at a pace to threaten the all-time record for a regular season – at least, that’s what the preseason hype projected. And an 8-0 start adding fuel to that. Since that start (the best ever by a defending World Series champion), the Dodgers have gone 3-6.

“It doesn’t feel good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But I think that’s what makes this stretch so frustrating because if I were to sit here today, however many games we are into the season, whatever our win-loss is – I would have banked it at the start of the season.

“But you start the season 8-0, 9-0, whatever it was and now we get here where we are today, that’s what kind of stings. But the win-loss – we’re fine. I’ve never been about the win-loss. I want our guys to get back to who we are. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”

Pitching, defense and baserunning have all been suspect at times during this slump. But it was the offense that deserted them this weekend and that’s what Roberts pointed to as the main culprit during this extended slide.

“Collectively, we’ve just got to get back to who we are, grinding the starter, getting the pitch count up,” he said. “Not trying to say you’re trying to walk, because that’s not what you want to do. But trying to hunt your zone, whatever particular zone that might be, and have conviction in the swing. So I think overarching, that’s where we’re at right now offensively.”

The Cubs held the Dodgers to five runs and a .200 average (19 for 95) for the weekend. After hitting 28 home runs in the first 14 games this season, the Dodgers hit just one in the weekend series. Over the nine-game slump, the Dodgers have hit .218 and averaged 3.2 runs per game after starting the season averaging 5.6 per game.

“You’re never going to have the whole nine, every guy in the lineup, be hot at the same time,” Kike’ Hernandez said Sunday. “I just feel like – we have more guys scuffling than guys that are feeling really good at the plate. So it’s just one of those stretches right now. It’s a matter of time. We’re going to snap out of it, and we’re just going to start steamrolling people. We’re just going through a little bit of a rough patch. When we hit, we don’t pitch, and when we pitch, we don’t hit.”

They pitched Sunday.

Rebounding from a poor outing in Philadelphia, where he let the wet weather get to him, Tyler Glasnow retired the first six Cubs in order before leaving a fastball up to Crow-Armstrong. He launched a high fly ball down the right-field line that collided with the foul pole for a solo home run.

“Honestly, I feel like today I didn’t really have much going for me,” Glasnow said. “I feel like in terms of mechanics and trying to do what I wanted to do, I kind of just felt off. I think I got through it pretty well. ... It was just the two at-bats, two homers.”

The second home run came in the sixth inning. Former Dodgers prospect Michael Busch ended a nine-pitch at-bat by launching a Glasnow slider into the Cubs’ bullpen for a solo home run that broke a 1-1 tie.

It was Busch’s second home run of the weekend and fourth in 11 games against the team that drafted him in the first round in 2019. Busch struck out three times Friday but went 6 for 10 in the Cubs’ two wins and has batted .326 (14 for 43) with six doubles, four home runs, 11 runs scored and 12 driven in against the Dodgers.

“I just feel like a lot of my stuff, especially the last inning, didn’t have much bite to it,” Glasnow said. “I feel like I just had to compete in the zone. Not a ton of put-away stuff. The curveball was decent, metric-wise, but I [didn’t have] a big strikeout pitch today. I just feel like it was popping up. You can see it. I just think he put a really good at-bat together. And, yeah, I guess it was just kind of sinkers and sliders towards the end, and it got a little predictable. And then I just threw a bad slider in the inner half and paid the price for that.”

Tommy Edman’s three-run home run in the sixth inning was enough to claim a victory Friday night. But the Dodgers didn’t score again until the second inning Sunday when Hernandez got his first hit of the season that wasn’t a home run – an RBI single.

Crow-Armstrong matched that with his first home run of the game in the top of the third.

After Busch’s homer in the sixth, the Dodgers tied the score again in the bottom of the inning when Michael Conforto led off with a single, went to third on a double by Will Smith and scored on Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly. Smith was stranded at third base, though, as Kike’ Hernandez lined out to third and Miguel Rojas to center field.

Crow-Armstrong grabbed the lead back for the Cubs with another solo home run off Blake Treinen in the seventh. Alex Vesia couldn’t hold the line in the eighth, allowing an insurance run, and the Dodgers didn’t have another hit after Smith’s double.

“It’s early right now,” Betts said. “It’s not like we’re not trying. We’re trying to get the job done. We’re just not. We just got to turn the page.”