MILWAUKEE — Runs have become a precious resource for the Dodgers recently and they squandered the little they could find on Wednesday afternoon.
Tanner Scott was unable to hold a one-run lead in the ninth inning and the Dodgers lost, 3-2, in 10 innings to the Milwaukee Brewers.
“We had them where we wanted them. We just couldn’t finish it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
Leads have been even more rare for the Dodgers recently. The loss was their sixth in a row – their longest losing streak since another six-game slide in April 2019. The three-game sweep by the Brewers is also their first ever of the Dodgers in Milwaukee.
The Dodgers scored a total of four runs in the three losses at American Family Field and have managed just 10 during the losing streak.
“Knowing the rough patch (we’re in), it’s really hard to take this one, because you just want to stop it,” said infielder Miguel Rojas, who was on base three times and had two of the Dodgers’ meager collection of five hits. “We all know what we’re capable of offensively. … It was frustrating not to get this one.”
During the six-game slide, the Dodgers have hit .190 as a team and struck out 61 times, including 37 in the three games against the Brewers.
“It’s tough. It’s one of those things where we’ve got to find a way to weather it,” Roberts said.
“We’ve just got to put some at-bats together, keep playing good defense and it’ll turn. It’ll turn. But when you’re mired in it, it’s frustrating. We still have some pretty good players.
Not as many as they had a week ago. The losing streak mostly coincides with the loss of third baseman Max Muncy to a knee injury and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to a foot contusion. Hernandez did pinch hit Wednesday and is expected back in the lineup Friday.
“We gotta find ways to put some runs on the board for this pitching staff. They’re doing really well, and they just continue to give us a chance to be in games,” Rojas said. “But scoring one or two runs is not going to cut it. We have to do better. We have to score more runs. And we have to find a way to do that regardless of, the homer is not there right now, the extra bases are not there. We gotta find ways to be a complete team that we know we can be. But we have to remind ourselves, we have to find ways to win games.”
Before the game, Roberts said he hoped to see more “fight” in his team’s at-bats than he’d seen during the losing streak.
What he got was more passive-aggressive than bare knuckles.
Six of the Dodgers’ seven walks in the game came in the two innings when they managed to scratch out runs.
Their first hit against Brewers starter Jose Quintana didn’t even come until the fifth inning, when Esteury Ruiz shot a ground ball through the infield. Rojas had walked and was running on the play, pulling the second baseman out of position.
The way the Dodgers’ offense has been going recently it needs help – it got some in that fifth inning.
James Outman worked the count full then checked his swing on a pitch well off the plate. When the appeal went to third base umpire John Libka, he ruled no swing, loading the bases for the Dodgers.
More help came from home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn as Shohei Ohtani drew a four-pitch walk. The second and fourth pitches of the at-bat seemed to nip the strike zone, but Reyburn didn’t see it that way and Ohtani’s walk forced in a run – only the third of the series for the Dodgers.
Any joy over that breakthrough was short-lived. Glasnow walked the leadoff hitter, Jake Bauers, in the bottom of the fifth and balked him to second base. Bauers took off for third, stealing the base and trotting home to tie the score when Will Smith’s throw got past Rojas at third base and went into left field.
Other than that, Glasnow’s return to the Dodgers’ starting rotation was a success. He allowed just that one unearned run on two hits and three walks while striking out five in five innings. His command was off at times but his velocity was up on both his four-seam fastball (96.8 mph) and sinker (96.6 mph) compared to his five starts in April.
“I thought Tyler did a really good job. I thought the throws were consistent,” Roberts said.
“There were a lot of really good throws. Tough loss. It stinks. But getting Tyler back was a real good positive.”
The Dodgers regained the lead in the seventh when an infield single and two walks loaded the bases with one out for Mookie Betts. He drove in the go-ahead run with a sacrifice fly into the left-field corner. But the Dodgers finished the day 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position, 1 for 19 in Milwaukee and 4 for 35 during the losing streak.
“It seems like we’re pitching okay. The defense at times has been really good. It’s just that right now we’re scuffling offensively, to have that big inning or to build an inning and get that big hit,” Roberts said.
The Brewers had the tying run in scoring position in the eighth and ninth innings. Scott got Christian Yelich to end the eighth but three singles in the ninth allowed the Brewers to tie the game and send it into extra innings on Scott’s sixth blown save of the season.
“They don’t strike out much. They put the ball in play,” Roberts said of the Brewers. “Three singles, first-and-third situation, they scored a run with three hits in that inning. So not surprising. They don’t punch much. They put the ball in play.”
Brewers reliever Trevor Megill struck out the side in the top of the 10th, the Dodgers failing to advance their free runner. In the bottom of the inning, the Brewers used a fly ball and a single by Jackson Chourio to walk away with the win.
“We’re gonna face teams that are gonna be that good. And if we want to be a championship-caliber team, we need to perform better against those guys,” Rojas said of the back-to-back sweeps by the Houston Astros and Brewers. “We can’t really feel sorry about ourselves, because there’s a lot of season left, and we know what we’re looking for. We’re looking to win another championship, and playing this kind of baseball is not gonna get us there.”