LOS ANGELES — Kenley Jansen had an alibi this time.
For the third consecutive night Friday, the Dodgers’ bullpen let a lead get away and gave up a go-ahead run in the ninth inning. This time, the relief crew topped themselves, also giving up three runs in the 10th inning after the Dodgers had rallied back in the bottom of the ninth, losing, 9-6, to the Colorado Rockies.
The loss was the Dodgers’ fifth in their past six games. They held leads in the ninth inning in four of those five losses. According to ESPN Stats and Info, this is the first time the Dodgers have lost four consecutive games when tied or leading entering the ninth inning since the franchise moved to Los Angeles.
And Friday’s loss was the Dodgers’ 10th in 11 extra-inning games this season. Their nine-game losing streak in extra innings is tied for the longest in franchise history.
“I have no idea. If you guys have anything, let me know,” Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner said, crowd-sourcing solutions when asked about the string of extra-inning failures. “But it’s pretty weird. I think 1-10 this year in extra innings. That’s obviously not good.”
There was very little good about Friday’s loss. The Dodgers wasted an opportunity to gain ground on the Giants, who experienced a bit of a hangover of their own after their back-to-back resurrections at Dodger Stadium, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Dodgers remain three games out of first place in the NL West.
And adding to the Dodgers’ woes, Cody Bellinger showed his first signs of offensive life in weeks (a double and a triple) – then left the game with a hamstring injury. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called the injury “day to day” for now, but Bellinger is not expected to play Saturday. He spent time on the injured list in mid-June with a strain of the same hamstring.
After throwing 60 pitches while retiring just three of 14 batters faced in back-to-back ninth-inning disasters the previous two nights, Jansen spent his pregame Friday running on the warning track and taking batting practice, having been declared unavailable by Roberts.
So this one couldn’t be pinned on Jansen — or Blake Treinen or Joe Kelly, both of whom were also unavailable Friday. Treinen had pitched the previous two nights but Kelly was experiencing “soreness,” Roberts said, and won’t pitch before Sunday.
That left Roberts turning to a pair of relief reinforcements freshly arrived from Triple-A – Brusdar Graterol and Darien Nunez. They combined to let a two-run lead get away in the eighth inning. Nunez gave up a go-ahead home run to pinch-hitter Sam Hilliard in the ninth.
Proving that the Dodgers aren’t the only ones covering their eyes when the bullpen gate opens, Rockies closer Daniel Bard followed Hilliard’s homer by allowing the first four Dodgers to reach base in the bottom of the ninth – two singles followed by two walks, the last of the bunch forcing in the tying run.
With a gift-wrapped chance to redeem the night and go home heroes, the next three Dodgers – Will Smith, Sheldon Neuse and AJ Pollock – struck out, leaving the bases loaded.
“I was pretty certain that the game was going to be over,” Roberts said of the ninth-inning opportunity. “Will’s obviously taken a lot of good at-bats for us, got a lot of big hits for us. So to think he would put the ball in play, I felt really good about it — especially with where Daniel bard was at as far as pitch count.
“And with Sheldon, there were a couple pitches I thought he could have ended the at-bat, put it in play. Just couldn’t do it. Then you’re hoping for a two-out hit from AJ but he (Bard) made some pitches. It’s baseball. But we did have our chance.”
The Dodgers did themselves no favor by extending the game into the dark alley that has been extra innings for them this year.
Roberts turned to one of the waiver-wire pickups that have populated the Dodgers’ bullpen throughout this season in the 10th inning. Jimmie Sherfy gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced, Trevor Story, then a two-run home run to Charlie Blackmon.
“I think all losses are kind of created the same, obviously,” said Turner of this string of late losses. “I think offensively we need to find a way to do a better job of extending leads throughout the game. Even this last month or so, we’ve been pretty reliant on big crooked numbers and not able to find ways to scratch off some ones and some twos in there. We need to keep on adding on as we get into these games.”
The Dodgers put up one of those crooked numbers (three) in the first inning but didn’t give David Price more support. Price pitched into the sixth inning, his longest outing since July 2019 with the Boston Red Sox, and gave up just four hits. Two of those were solo home runs to Elias Diaz and Story – the first home runs allowed by Price since he served up three in his first two games of the season (April 2 and 5).
Since Trevor Bauer’s last start, Price has pitched four times (three starts and a mid-game appearance). He has allowed four runs over 14-2/3 innings (a 2.45 ERA) on 12 hits and four walks while striking out 14.
“He did everything he needed to do to help us win a ballgame,” Roberts said of Price.
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