Dodgers’ offense stifled by Gavin Williams, Guardians

LOS ANGELES — One day after rain arrived at Dodger Stadium, a complete chill enveloped the Dodgers’ offense on Wednesday.

Early-season offensive woes only grew larger as the Cleveland Guardians made themselves at home in the brisk conditions with a 4-1 victory to close out a three-game series.

After sweeping the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opening series of the season, when the Dodgers had to rally from 2-0 deficits in all three games, they scored just seven total runs in three days against the Guardians.

Cleveland right-hander Gavin Williams put on a show with 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings, marking his fifth career game of double-digit Ks. It was the former first-round draft pick’s 65th career start over four seasons.

As good as Williams has shown he can be, how does an offense with so many elite players find itself in a collective funk?

“Obviously, you’re asking a question to compartmentalize the offense to the team. And I want to start with, we’re 4-2, so that’s a good thing,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But yeah, it’s obviously a very talented lineup, and right now, it just seems like a lot of guys are in-between.

“I think you still got to give credit to the guys making pitches. I think that we’ll get in our groove.”

Andy Pages had three hits for the Dodgers, but the rest of the lineup was left to admire his handiwork. Shohei Ohtani, Kyle Tucker, Mooke Betts and Freddie Freeman combined to go 1 for 14.

Freeman had the hit, a shutout-busting home run with two outs in the ninth inning, his first of the season. Will Smith struck out three times from the No. 5 spot and flew out to deep center to end the game.

“I think you can talk to every single one of us and (we would) say we wish we had a better offensive first week,” Freeman said. “But I think our offense is inevitable. Hopefully maybe tomorrow with the off day, the coldness will go away and we’ll heat up on Friday in the day (at Washington).”

The afternoon forecast in the nation’s capital Friday does call for high temperatures of 81 degrees.

The only source of pride for the Dodgers on Wednesday was their place in MLB history by starting a Japanese-born pitcher for the third consecutive game. All three fared well, with Roki Sasaki giving up one run on four hits over four innings in a loss on Monday night, while Shohei Ohtani gave up one hit over six scoreless innings of a victory on Tuesday night.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto became the first Dodgers pitcher to make two starts this season and allowed two runs on four hits over six innings with two strikeouts. It was the first time he struck out less than three batters while pitching at least four innings for the Dodgers.

“Certain pitches like the splitter, I think I still need to clean up,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “But overall my stuff was not bad, like I said. I was able to work into the sixth inning.”

Roberts, himself of Japanese heritage, was ecstatic to be part of the accomplishment from Sasaki, Ohtani and Yamamoto.

“That’s fantastic. I’m very honored,” Roberts said. “These guys are three great men. They’re all different. But this is just a special time in Major League Baseball, certainly with the Japanese players that we’re fortunate to have, and players around the league of all nationalities. But yeah, it’s an honor to know that I manage these three guys.”

As tepid as the Dodgers’ offense looked, especially while striking out a season-high 12 times, the Guardians scored just two more runs in the three games and managed to pull out two victories.

“Credit to our pitching staff. There’s a reason why we’re 4-2 right now,” Freeman said. “Yoshi was great again, bullpen was good. We just didn’t get anything going offensively.”

With Williams out of the game, the Dodgers got to work against Guardians right-hander Shawn Armstrong in the eighth. Teoscar Hernandez singled with one out and Pages followed with a double to put runners at second and third.

But Alex Freeland struck out looking against Armstrong and Ohtani struck out on three consecutive curveballs from left-hander Erik Sabrowski. Ohtani finished 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and appeared to be nursing right hand or wrist discomfort after the strikeout in the eighth.

“I saw that, too, so I’ll get a report,” Roberts said.

Ohtani is now 3 for 18 (.167) on the season, and all three hits are singles.

After hitting just four home runs through their first six games, and all from rookie Chase DeLauter, the Guardians added two on Wednesday. Gabriel Arias hit a home run in the third inning against Yamamoto and Jose Ramirez went deep against Tanner Scott in the eighth.

While the Guardians have six home runs in seven games, the Dodgers have eight homers through six games.

“I think right now, offensively, most of our guys are scuffling,” Roberts said. “It’ll be good to get on the road, get an off day, and get going from there.”