by Cary Osborne
The recent Dodger losses have been tough on the throat and hard on the stomach.
This one on Tuesday had a similar flavor.
Shohei Ohtani pitched five no-hit innings and later hit his 50th home run of the season.
He left with a four-run lead in the sixth. His solo homer helped ignite a two-run eighth inning. But the Phillies responded to both with a six-run sixth inning and a three-run ninth against the Dodger bullpen.
The Dodgers lost 9–6 to the Phillies on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in another extraordinary Ohtani performance and another extraordinary Dodger starting pitching performance.
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Three of the last four Dodger losses have been in games they’ve led. Five of the last five Dodger losses have been pinned on the bullpen. Blake Treinen has been on the losing end of four of those games.
“Sometimes there are no words to describe it,” Treinen said. “I know it’s frustrating to the fans. I can promise you, from the bottom of our hearts, we’re trying our darndest every single night. There’s nothing we haven’t done, no stone we haven’t unturned. … It is literally sometimes things aren’t working.”
The Dodgers have lost the first two games of this series against Philadelphia in games where the “starter” has allowed one hit or fewer.
“Starter” goes in quotation marks because Emmet Sheehan went 5 2/3 innings on Monday after Anthony Banda served as the opener. Sheehan allowed one hit in the Dodgers’ 6–5 loss.
Ohtani was special on Tuesday, mowing through a Phillies offense that leads the Majors in runs, batting average and OPS in September.
He allowed a walk to Bryce Harper in the first inning, then retired the next 12 Phillies in order with efficiency.
Ohtani was at 68 pitches after five innings, but was also at what has been his innings limit this season.
“He wasn’t going back out,” said manager Dave Roberts. “We’ve been very steadfast in every situation as far as inning for his usage — from one inning to two innings, to three to four to five. We haven’t deviated from that.
“I’m not going to have a plan for five innings, and then he pitches well and say, ‘Hey, now you go six innings.’ He’s too important. And if something does happen, then that’s on me for changing. And we haven’t done that all year, so I’m not going to do that right now.”
But as bad luck would have it, the Dodgers were stung again in a game where their starter chased a no-hitter.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was an out away from the no-hitter on Sept. 6 when things spun out of control and the Dodgers lost 4–3 in Baltimore.
The Phillies sent 10 batters to the plate in the sixth inning, scoring five times against Justin Wrobleski and adding another run against Edgardo Henriquez.
№9 hitter Rafael Marchán hit the go-ahead three-run home run in the ninth off Treinen.
“It doesn’t hurt anybody more than us right now. This is not fun. But we’re good at being resilient,” Treinen said. “I know it’s been a long season, but you have to understand what this team does year in and year out. We’re winners, and we’re going to find a way to get that done.”
Dodgers suffer another disappointing setback despite Ohtani’s remarkable performance was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.