Can the Dodgers really win with just half of Adrian Gonzalez?

They’re battered and bruised, bloody and staggering, and right now I can hear them screaming above the din:

“Adrian! Adrian!”

No matter how wobbly and beaten, sometimes a team just needs a big hug. Or at least their starting first baseman back.

Adrian Gonzalez, who’s never been confused with Talia Shire, has been out the last two days with a lower back issue. That the Dodgers lost both games is not entirely coincidental.

He is scheduled to return for Monday’s four-game series opener against the Giants, and make no mistake, the Dodgers badly need him. Need him not to finally clinch the division and regain the home-field advantage against the Mets, but need him to be successful during the postseason.

And that latter part is not guaranteed.

The Dodgers are a lot of very nice pieces without a singular, dominant position player. Yet if there is one player most valuable in the daily lineup, it is Gonzalez. He leads the team in doubles (33), homers (28), RBIs (88) and runs (74). He’s hit third or fourth in the lineup all season and gives the team a steady glove at first.

But now Gonzalez, 33, is being hampered by this back issue, and it doesn’t sound like some minor problem.

“My whole left side -- my hamstring, my calf, my quad -- everything feels weak and kind of dead, in a sense,” he told The Times’ Dylan Hernandez. “When I’m hitting, I feel like I have no backside. When I’m running, I feel like I can’t really push off my left leg.”

It sounds suspiciously like a sciatica issue, which would not be good. Sciatica is typically treated with rest (which the Dodgers hope will be hard to come by for another month), muscle relaxants and physical therapy.

Gonzalez says he wants to keep playing the final week to remain sharp. But in truth, he has not been the same Gonzalez at the plate for weeks. In his last 40 games he’s hit just .212, with .295 on-base and .377 slugging percentages.

“I’m not so concerned about my statistics,” he said. “I’m more concerned about finding a feel.”

That could be hard to come by if the leg he pivots on during his swing is robbing him of power. It’s difficult to imagine the Dodgers doing much damage in the playoffs if they are playing without a fully healthy Gonzalez.