LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers aren’t the hottest team in baseball these days. But they can take some credit for the team that is.
The Dodgers’ offense lurched back to life Saturday afternoon but it wasn’t enough against their new overlords. The Milwaukee Brewers handed them an 8-7 defeat.
The Brewers have won nine games in a row, surging into the rear-view mirror of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. And the Dodgers have been co-conspirators. Five of the Brewers’ nine wins have come against the Dodgers.
“They’re playing as good as anybody in baseball right now. They clearly have our number,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Tonight, we certainly scored some runs, but we haven’t beat these guys.
“The most important thing for me, regardless of opponent, is we’ve got to play a complete game. So yeah, you don’t want to lose five in a row to one team, but it’s where we’re at.”
A lack of offense has been the biggest issue dragging the Dodgers down this month. But it was pitching that failed them Saturday.
Right-hander Emmet Sheehan started for the Dodgers and barely made it out of the third inning. He gave up four runs in that third inning. The first five Brewers reached base, starting with a triple by Blake Perkins on a drive into the right-center field gap that Teoscar Hernandez ran down but let go under his glove and to the wall.
“I tried to cut it off. But I was playing a little close to the line. Didn’t get a chance,” Hernandez said. “I tried to cut the ball off just to keep him at first, maybe, if he continues to go to second maybe throw him out. But I didn’t get there on time. I tried to play aggressive, tried to help the pitching side. I didn’t get on time there. It went under my glove and it was a triple.”
Roberts was not as forgiving.
“That ball has got to be a double. That ball has got to be cut off. It can’t be a triple,” he said. “And then the other one late turned into a triple as well, or double with an error, whatever it was (a single by Brice Turang in the eighth that Andy Pages misplayed for an error). Those are little things that just can’t happen. Baseball — pitching is tough enough. Hitting is tough enough. With the defensive part of it, throwing to the right bases, cutting the ball off, getting it in, not turning a double into a triple, that stuff can’t happen.”
Sheehan eventually escaped the third inning and the Dodgers tied the score in the bottom of the inning. But the young right-hander gave up a leadoff home run to Isaac Collins in the fourth and Sheehan’s night was done early.
“I thought with Emmet — the stuff, the command wasn’t consistent,” Roberts said. “I didn’t think his slider was particularly good tonight when he used it to right-handers, to left-handers.”
Sheehan pegged his problem as “just not executing.”
“It’s not a good feeling when you can’t get it done,” he said.
The Dodgers scored a total of four runs in their first four losses to the Brewers (three in Milwaukee and Friday in Los Angeles). They matched that in the third inning against Brewers starter Freddy Peralta.
After Miguel Rojas drew a leadoff walk, Shohei Ohtani jumped on a first-pitch changeup and sent it 448 feet into the left field pavilion. The two-run home run was Ohtani’s 33rd homer of the season, tops in the National League.
Will Smith singled and Freddie Freeman drew a walk, putting two runners on for Hernandez. He made up for his defensive gaffe with an RBI double. The fourth run of the inning scored on a wild pitch by Peralta. But Hernandez moved to third with no outs and stayed there. The Dodgers couldn’t push another run across.
The Brewers kept scoring after their big inning, and the Dodgers tried to keep up.
The Brewers rebuilt their lead with Collins’ home run and an RBI double by Caleb Durbin off Ben Casparius in the sixth inning. They scored another run in the seventh and Joey Ortiz hit a solo home run off Lou Trivino in the eighth.
The Dodgers matched one of those on three singles in the sixth inning — one from Tommy Edman to end an 0-for-29 stretch and a two-out hit from Ohtani to drive in his third run of the game. Edman and Rojas added solo home runs in the eighth, making it a one-run game when Ohtani drove a fly ball to the warning track to end the inning.
The fly ball – and the Dodgers – came up a little short.
“It’s part of the game,” Hernandez said. “I think that’s how it’s been the whole season. Sometimes the pitching is there and the offense is not there. Sometimes the offense is there, the pitching is not there. We’re just going to continue to keep pushing, keep working hard, keep putting things together and just trying to, when the pitchers do their job, we’re trying to do our jobs and just win games.”
This loss was the Dodgers’ fifth in a row at home (stretching back to their sweep by the Houston Astros earlier this month), their longest since May 2018.
“Tonight was probably the best offensive performance we’ve had in a while. Just good at-bats, some slug in there, some walks, and against a really good pitcher in Freddy Peralta,” Roberts said.
“I thought that was good, seeing some life. Unfortunately, we still came up short. Tonight was one of those nights where the offense showed life, and just on the pitching side, we just didn’t do a good job tonight.”