Dodgers offense fails Yamamoto again

Yoshinobu Yamamoto was brilliant, again, but the Dodgers offense had little to show for their efforts, falling 2-1 to the Cardinals on Saturday in a second consecutive loss at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

Ben Casparius allowed the first run of the game in the eighth inning, and then allowed the game-winner in the ninth. After a leadoff double by Nolan Gorman to open the inning, pinch-hitter Nolan Arenado lofted a walk-off pinch single over a five-man infield to finish this one.

Neither team scored until the bottom of the the eighth, and the first runs for both teams were nontraditional.

With two outs in the frame and runners on first and second, Casparius gave up an infield single that ricocheted off of him to just behind the mound. He got to the ball but, with no real shot at getting Alec Burleson, threw to first base anyway. The throw was off just enough to allow Masyn Winn enough time to score all the way from second base.

In the top of the ninth, the Dodgers got one-out hits by Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to put runners at the corners. Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley struck out three in the inning, the second of which was Freddie Freeman on a ball that got away, which allowed Ohtani to scamper home with the equalizer.

Yamamoto struck out nine in his six scoreless innings, the sixth time in 13 starts this season he’s lasted at least six innings without allowing an earned run. He worked around four singles, two walks, and a hit batter to lower his ERA to 2.20.

Saturday was Yamamoto’s fifth game with at least nine strikeouts

The Dodgers run support for Yamamoto has been comically bad this season, scoring just 21 runs with him in the game during his 13 starts. That includes just one run of support over Yamamoto’s last three starts, and zero or one run in nine of his 13 outings.

It wasn’t for lack of scoring opportunities on Saturday.

The Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs in the third inning, then got the leadoff batter on in each of the next four innings. Hyeseong Kim, in his first game since fouling a ball off his leg on Tuesday, had two of those leadoff singles, and even stole a base with nobody out in the fifth. But the big three of Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman couldn’t plate him either time.

The Dodgers entered Saturday hitting a whopping .308/.385/.556 with a 155 wRC+ with runners in scoring position, tops in the majors across the board. Their early-season issues of lack of chances have improved greatly. But they were hitless in 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position on Saturday, and are just 1-for-25 during the series. The hit was an infield single that didn’t score a run.

After exploding on the Yankees for 18 runs last Saturday at Dodger Stadium, the Dodgers have scored just 20 runs in their last seven games.

Saturday particulars

Home runs: none

WP — Ryan Helsley (3-0): 1 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 3 strikeouts

LP — Ben Casparius (4-1): 1+ IP, 5 hits, 2 runs

Up next

The Dodgers and Cardinals will tiptoe through the raindrops one more time on Sunday afternoon (11:15 a.m. PT, SportsNet LA), with Clayton Kershaw starting on four days rest. Michael McGreevy starts for St. Louis.