LOS ANGELES — If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
The Dodgers’ offense has been dissected and analyzed like a bug on a slide. The starting pitching only recently became a concern with Tyler Glasnow’s injury, Blake Snell’s premature return and, of course, Roki Sasaki’s mystery grab bag every time out.
Even with Edwin Diaz’s injury, the bullpen had been fairly stable – and Alex Vesia a rock of dependability within that. But Vesia entered a tie game in the seventh inning and retired just one of five batters he faced as the San Francisco Giants scored three times then blew the game open in the ninth to hand the Dodgers their latest disappointment, a 9-3 loss in the opener of a four-game series Monday night.
Eight of the Giants’ runs came in the sixth inning or later. The Dodgers have now lost three games in a row – by a combined score of 23-7 – eight of their past 12 and 13 of their past 22 games. With this loss, they fell out of first place in the NL West.
With the score tied 3-3, Vesia struck out Jesus Rodriguez to start the seventh. But he gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases then lost a seven-pitch battle with Rafael Devers, walking him to force in a run.
Will Klein replaced Vesia and struck out Heliot Ramos. He got ahead of Willy Adames, 1-and-2, moving one pitch away from ending the inning. But Adames fought off a high sweeper, dumping a soft single into right field to drive in two runs.
That decided a back-and-forth game between the two rivals.
Devers clipped Sasaki for a solo home run on a hanging splitter leading off the second inning. Ramos followed with a single but Sasaki struck out Adames, Matt Chapman and Harrison Bader to end the inning.
Sasaki’s inconsistency returned in the third inning when he helped the Giants load the bases by walking the No. 9 hitter Jesus Rodriguez, giving up a single to Luis Arraez and hitting Casey Schmitt with a slider.
But Sasaki escaped damage when he got Devers on a shallow fly out and Ramos on a ground out. That started a stretch of eight in a row retired by Sasaki.
The Dodgers’ offense took some time getting started, wasting doubles by Freddie Freeman in the first and Teoscar Hernandez in the third. In the midst of a slump, Hernandez was dropped to eighth in the batting order Monday, the lowest he has hit since the 2020 season. The double was his first extra-base hit since April 21 and only his second (both doubles) in his past 20 games. But Hernandez showed signs of life, adding a walk and a single later in the game.
The Dodgers loaded the bases and pushed across a run in the fourth inning on four consecutive singles from Freeman, Kyle Tucker, Will Smith and Max Muncy. They added a second run on a double play but the potential big inning petered out there.
The Dodgers’ first lead since Friday disappeared in the sixth inning – and so did Sasaki after giving up singles to Schmitt and Devers and a two-run double to Ramos.
One of the few hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup not slumping, Muncy led off the sixth inning with a home run to tie the score. That was the last highlight for the Dodgers. The Giants regained the lead in the seventh then piled on with three runs in the ninth against Dodgers reliever Wyatt Mills who gave up just one hit but walked four and hit a batter in the inning.
More to come on this story.