MIAMI — It was as if Tyler Glasnow went to do his Saturday chores and couldn’t get the lawn mower started.
Glasnow seemed out of sorts from the start Saturday and was gone after walking back-to-back batters to start the fifth inning. The Dodgers’ eight-game winning streak sputtered to a halt with a 4-3 loss to the Miami Marlins on Saturday afternoon.
“I think it happens to anyone,” Glasnow said. “I think sometimes you’re timed up and you feel good. Then other times you have to make adjustments and figure out how to get guys out that day. I’m kind of in that phase right now.”
Glasnow faced 14 batters in the first two innings, walked two of them, hit another, threw a wild pitch and gave up five hits, including a two-run home run to Graham Pauley in the second inning and three consecutive singles to produce another run that inning. He threw 52 pitches just to get through those two innings.
“He just couldn’t get his rhythm,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You could see he was fighting himself all game. I know he didn’t feel great coming into the game as far as kind of overall body, but I don’t know what specifically.”
Glasnow said his back “feels good” and didn’t admit to any physical issues that gave him problems Saturday.
“I just think it was bad timing (with his delivery) and trying to get on time,” he said. “It was just hard to find today. Just every pitch was kind of off.
“It just kind of happens throughout a season. I’m just kind of hitting that right now. When something like that happens, you kind of figure out what it is, catch it and get going. So I just have to figure it out again and hopefully next start will be good.”
He did find something in the third and fourth innings, retiring six consecutive batters including five consecutive strikeouts.
But when he lost it again in the fifth and walked the first two batters, it drove his pitch count up to 91 and Roberts pulled him. Jack Dreyer replaced Glasnow, hit a batter and gave up a run after Betts made an error on a potential double-play ball.
Glasnow’s first two starts after returning from a back injury that sidelined him for three months were fairly good. He gave up four runs over 12 innings, struck out 13 and walked just one.
But Saturday was his second struggle in a row. Over his past two starts, he has allowed eight runs on 11 hits and seven walks in 10 innings.
“I felt pretty bad today but I think I probably felt better that last one,” he said. “Today was just kind of all over the place for me. I’m happy I had the two good innings where I felt kind of timed up. It’s just a matter of figuring it out each inning right now.”
In that same time, Glasnow has gone from luxury to necessity to concern. Plan A for the Dodgers had Shohei Ohtani in their postseason rotation with Glasnow as a fifth starter to deploy behind him in a ‘piggyback’ situation or in another bullpen role. But Ohtani’s injury issues have taken him out of the picture and thrust Glasnow into the role of a fourth starter in the postseason rotation.
His last two starts have made that a less comfortable proposition for the Dodgers.
“You can just tell he was kind of fighting his delivery all game,” Roberts said. “I thought there were some good throws in there with different pitches, but I just think the consistency of the throw execution, what he’s done over the last handful of starts wasn’t that way tonight. And again, I’m just kind of looking at his body, his demeanor, mound presence, and kind of just trying to work through that delivery.
“I don’t think it was one of those things that is something that’s longer term at all. I think it’s one of those things that — I don’t know if it was travel or obviously he’s a big-bodied guy, so there’s a lot of big moving parts. Sometimes if they get out of whack a little bit, it’s hard to just sync everything up.”
Their offense did its own sputtering Saturday. Mookie Betts and Max Muncy sent Glasnow out with a 2-0 lead after they hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning.
But the Dodgers’ next hit didn’t come until Alex Freeland singled with two outs in the seventh inning. The Dodgers finally got on the board again with two outs in the ninth inning. Josue De Paula drew his second walk of the day, moved to second on defensive indifference and scored on Hunter Feduccia’s single. Pinch-hitter Will Smith lined out to third to end the game.
It was the Dodgers’ MLB-leading 53rd one-run game, the 12th in their past 22 games.