PITTSBURGH — Well, at least they won’t have to play any of these teams in October.
But the Dodgers’ inability to take advantage of the soft spots on their schedule over the past month is making it harder for them to get there. They let their guard down again Tuesday night, losing the opener of a three-game series, 9-7, to a Pittsburgh Pirates team headed for their third straight (and fifth in the past seven seasons) last-place finish in the National League Central.
The Dodgers have now lost 10 of their past 14 games against teams currently sporting losing records.
They had to work to lose this one. Spotting the Pirates a 4-0 head start, the Dodgers came back to tie the score but fell behind again when the Pirates scored five times against the Dodgers’ bullpen.
After breezing through August with five wins in five starts and just six runs allowed, September came in like a lion for Clayton Kershaw.
The first five Pirates reached base against the veteran left-hander – a leadoff double by Jared Triolo hit 102.5 mph off the bat, back-to-back walks and another double, this one blooped down the right field line. Teoscar Hernandez got there in time but came up empty on his sliding attempt to make a catch that Statcast estimated would be made nine times out of 10. Andrew McCutchen ripped a line drive 105.4 mph back at Kershaw who got his glove on it but couldn’t make a play.
That was not the hardest-hit ball in this game. Not even close.
Kershaw gave up a sacrifice fly and another single before getting out of the first inning and cruising through the next four innings. The future Hall of Famer walked two more batters but didn’t give up a hit after the first inning – despite Tommy Pham ripping a line drive 111 mph back at him. Kershaw somehow contorted in Matrix-like fashion to avoid getting hit – and caught the ball to end the fifth inning (and his night).
And that was not the hardest-hit ball in this game either.
That honor went to the 120-mph rocket Shohei Ohtani hit into the right-field stands in the third inning. The solo home run was his hardest-hit ball of the season and the third-hardest hit in MLB this year (behind one hit 122.9 mph by the Pirates’ Oneil Cruz and another hit 120.4 mph by Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr.).
It was also the 100th home run of Ohtani’s Dodgers career – 54 last season, 46 and counting this season. He is the fastest to hit 100 home runs in a Dodgers uniform, doing it in 294 games and flying past Cody Bellinger (401 games) and Gary Sheffield (399).
That was part of the Dodgers’ comeback from the 4-0 first-inning deficit. Andy Pages tied the score with a solo home run in the fourth inning.
But the Dodgers’ bullpen gave the lead back. Edgardo Henriquez and Blake Treinen combined to give up three runs in the sixth inning. Michael Kopech and Anthony Banda collaborated on another run in the seventh. And Kirby Yates did that on his own in the eighth.
The Dodgers’ bullpen – supposedly fortified by the returns of Kopech, Tanner Scott and Yates over the past week – has given up 11 runs in seven innings over their past three games.
The Dodgers did close the gap with two runs in the seventh inning, the second gifted on a bad call by home plate umpire Nic Lentz. The Pirates thought they had Will Smith struck out on a foul tip to end the inning. But Lentz ruled Smith had checked his swing with no foul. Pirates manager Don Kelly argued to no avail and Smith stroked the next pitch into center field for an RBI single (his third hit of the game).
Ohtani drove in another run in the ninth with his third hit and second double of the game before former Dodger Dennis Santana closed it out for the Pirates.
More to come on this story.