‘We’ll Be Ready To Go Tomorrow’

It’s a painfully familiar equation for Dodger fans: LOB + RISP = Loss.

During Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the American League East second place Baltimore Orioles in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 52,382, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘ team went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, while leaving seven men on base.

What’s worse (if that is even possible) is that Dodgers first baseman Kiké Hernández led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a double to center, which was followed by a six-pitch walk by Dodgers second baseman Chris Taylor. But designated hitter Shohei Ohtani popped out to third, right fielder Mookie Betts flied out to right, and left fielder Teoscar Hernández lined out to right to end the inning, stranding Kiké and CT3 on second and first base respectively. (Doesn’t anybody sac bunt anymore?).

“It was just a good ballgame. We ended up losing, but I thought our guys in the bullpen did a fine job. We’ll be ready to go tomorrow,” was the best that Roberts could come up with postgame.

Teoscar, who drove in the Dodgers second run on a sharp single to left-center field in the bottom of the third inning to give his team a (brief) 2-1 lead, had a far batter explanation.

“They’re a pretty good team. They (Baltimore’s pitchers) throw hard, they hit their spots. That’s when pitchers get harder,” Hernández told reporters postgame. “We had some opportunities, but we didn’t come through with enough good at-bats or hits in those situations.”

But…

Play Ball!

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