The Dodgers’ lately slumping offense was higher Saturday night time.
However for a workforce that has struggled to achieve traction and string collectively wins for nearly a month, even a seven-run, 10-hit efficiency wasn’t fairly sufficient.
In an 8-7 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Dodgers put a badly-needed crooked quantity on the board early, scoring 4 runs within the backside of the third to reply the Brewers four-run rally within the prime half of the inning.
The Dodgers manufactured one other run within the sixth, holding the sport shut on an evening Emmet Sheehan struggled in a season-worst begin and the bullpen yielded three pricey runs late. They even hit back-to-back dwelling runs within the eighth, trimming what had grown to a three-run deficit again to at least one.
However each time it appeared like they have been actually prepared to interrupt out, like their long-slumbering lineup was about to roar again to life, the Dodgers nonetheless got here up ever-frustratingly brief.
And no sequence epitomized these complications like the tip of the third.
After a Shohei Ohtani two-run homer, a Teoscar Hernández RBI double and a run-scoring wild pitch from Brewers starter Freddy Peralta, the Dodgers had the go-ahead run at third with no outs. They have been 90 toes away from flipping the momentum totally, and finishing the sort of ruthless offensive onslaught that has evaded their $400-million roster for the final a number of weeks.
However then, in a direct return to their uninspired type of late, the lineup went lacking, squandering the chance with three fast outs — moments earlier than the Brewers retook a lead their premium pitching workers wouldn’t once more relinquish.
So goes life for the Dodgers nowadays, when even a largely productive day on the plate couldn’t stop one other sequence defeat to the Brewers or a ninth total loss of their final 11 video games.
Saturday might have been a extra profound breakthrough. A recreation of not simply incremental progress, however a complete offensive turnaround.
Ohtani had a three-RBI day, beginning together with his towering 448-foot opposite-field blast. Hernández’s double was probably the greatest swings he has taken within the final couple months, a line drive into the right-center discipline hole that one-hopped off the wall. Tommy Edman broke an 0-for-29 skid with a sixth-inning single and eighth-inning dwelling run. Miguel Rojas, one of many few who has impressed through the Dodgers’ latest struggles, adopted Edman’s solo blast with certainly one of his personal within the subsequent at-bat, finishing a two-hit night time that additionally included a stroll.
However each time the Dodgers put the Brewers on the ropes, they didn’t land the required knockout blow.
In a recreation they wanted their lineup to choose up the slack left by a lackluster pitching efficiency, they repeatedly ran out of rope.
On the verge of taking the lead within the third, the Dodgers as an alternative watched Andy Pages take a known as third strike (which he reacted angrily to, regardless of the pitch being effectively within the zone), Michael Conforto floor out towards a drawn-in infield and Edman hit a can of corn to left to retire the facet.
The 4-4 tie was damaged within the subsequent inning, when Isaac Collins hit a leadoff dwelling run over the brief wall in proper discipline to chase Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan from the sport.
Trailing by two within the sixth, the Dodgers threatened once more. Edman and Rojas each singled, organising Ohtani for an RBI knock in left discipline. However then Will Smith grounded out to second to retire the facet.
The ultimate tease got here within the eighth, after the Brewers opened up an 8-5 lead.
Edman lifted his dwelling run to the left-field bullpen. Rojas went deep on the same trajectory.
That introduced up Ohtani, representing the potential tying run. However he watched a hovering fly ball die on the warning observe in middle.
Shut, however not sufficient. Too little, as soon as once more coming frustratingly too late.
The bats, in fact, weren’t the Dodgers’ main drawback Saturday.
Sheehan noticed his lately promising return from Tommy John surgical procedure derailed in a five-run, three-plus inning outing. Through the Brewers’ four-run third, he missed wildly with an array of breaking pitches, and was punished for a number of sliders that didn’t induce a whiff.
The protection wasn’t sharp both, with each Hernández and Pages failing to chop off balls within the gaps at numerous factors.
And usually, the Dodgers have reverted to the general shoddy play that led to a seven-game dropping streak shortly earlier than the All-Star break (three of which got here in Milwaukee to the Brewers, who can full a six-game season sweep of the Dodgers on Sunday).
However the lack of persistently well timed offense stays essentially the most confounding difficulty for the Dodgers.
That was the case even earlier than the sport, when supervisor Dave Roberts gave Mookie Betts — essentially the most obtrusive underperformer amongst Dodgers hitters this season — a day without work simply two video games into the second half in hopes it will enable him to clear his thoughts and work on his swing.
It felt simply as prescient within the aftermath of yet one more defeat, with the workforce nonetheless trying to find a successful formulation amid its most disappointing stretch of the yr.
