KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Playing down to the level of their opponents at times on this six-game road trip through Denver and Kansas City hadn’t produced a loss for the Dodgers – until Saturday afternoon.
The Dodgers were held scoreless into the seventh inning and Ben Casparius had the worst outing of his budding MLB career as the Royals snapped a six-game losing streak with a 9-5 victory.
“I think the four games (all wins before Saturday), I thought we pitched well. I don’t think we’ve particularly hit the baseball well, but I don’t think it’s a letdown,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“Kind of going back to the construction of the team, there’s some things we’re not great at, but there’s things that we are great at. And having the depth, length, talent, that’s why we can sustain not always playing perfect baseball and still win baseball games. We’ve got to also appreciate some of the good things about our ballclub.”
Those weren’t much in evidence as the Dodgers fell behind 9-1 with just five hits after eight innings. But three of those hits Saturday came from Freddie Freeman – as positive a sign as the Dodgers could get in a loss that was thoroughly lopsided until a four-run ninth inning.
“I’ve been grinding this whole month,” Freeman said. “To finally see some results after all the hard work and extra work that’s been going into my swing, it’s been nice. Hopefully we can build off this. Unfortunately, this game is not a guarantee game. But at least it’s a step in the right direction.”
Freeman came into the game in his deepest slump as a Dodger – 7 for his past 54 and 12 for 79 (.152) over his previous 21 games without a home run. Freeman’s frustration had become so obvious that Roberts floated the idea of giving him the day off Sunday.
The mere mention of a day off must have been just the trigger Freeman needed. He was on base five times Saturday on two singles, two walks and his first home run since May 11 in Arizona (41 games and 178 plate appearances ago).
“I did mention it. I don’t know if it triggered that,” Roberts said. “He looked really good today, back to being who he is. But he’ll be down tomorrow.”
Freeman’s home run was the extent of the Dodgers’ offense until the ninth inning.
Shohei Ohtani made his third start of the season, exploring new territory – the second inning. He retired six of eight batters faced, allowing a single to Bobby Witt Jr. and a walk before getting a double play to end the first inning.
The double-play ball came on a 101.7 mph fastball to Vinnie Pasquantino, the fastest pitch of Ohtani’s MLB career and the fastest by any Dodgers pitcher this year.
“I think you can’t take the competitor out of the player,” Roberts said. “There’s a little bit of stress (two runners on), and then that’s when you started seeing the 100s and trying to bully guys. And I still thought the sweeper was good, the sinker was good. But no one knows himself better than he does.
“I thought he was still in control, and it was still good to see triple-digits.”
Ohtani left after 27 pitches in his two innings and things went downhill for the Dodgers.
Casparius left the stadium early Friday night after starting to feel ill. He came in eager to pitch Saturday regardless. With temperatures around 90 and high humidity, it wasn’t the best combination.
“For sure, I don’t think I pitched in the heat like this in a long time – especially a day game with the humidity like that,” Casparius said. “But I felt good enough to take the ball today. It didn’t really go our way. I didn’t execute the gameplan as well as I would have liked to.”
He gave up three consecutive two-out hits in the third inning – one a bloop double that dropped in front of Teoscar Hernandez just inside the right field foul line and the next a two-run double off the left-field wall by Maikel Garcia.
The Dodgers’ outfielders have not acquitted themselves well in the spacious outfields of Coors Field and Kauffman Stadium this week.
“It’s fair,” Roberts said of the criticism. “I think as a defender, we can’t be everywhere. I think that if you look at our outfield construction, we’re not fleet of foot. And we knew that as we built the roster. And so there’s going to be some cost. When balls have some hang time, on the line or in the gap, and we can’t get to them, that’s part of it.
“So we have to make the plays that we’re supposed to make. But there’s not a bunch of sprinters in the outfield. That’s just kind of how we’re constructed.”
Two innings later, Casparius gave up a three-run home run to Pasquantino, also with two outs. The rookie right-hander had a 2.93 ERA over 40 innings when the Dodgers decided to put him in their rotation, paired with Ohtani as ‘opener.’ Casparius has given up 11 runs in 12⅔ innings since then.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Roberts said when asked if the new role has thrown Casparius off his game. “I think that when you’re seeing guys two and three times in an outing, that’s a different ballgame, as far as a pitcher. I think he’s not getting as much swing-and-miss as he was as a reliever, and his execution isn’t as fine as it has been.
“This is a learning curve for him at the major-league level, being a starting pitcher. But we feel that he’s earned this opportunity. We need it as far as length. But I don’t think that him coming in, whether it’s in the second inning or the third inning or the fourth inning, has impacted his performance.”
The Royals put the game out of reach, scoring three times off Dodgers reliever Luis Garcia who gave up four hits to the five batters he faced (three doubles).
The Dodgers put together a four-run ninth to make the score more palatable.