After six consecutive wins this week, three empty at-bats doomed the Dodgers on Sunday.
Regardless of trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by a number of runs for a lot of the afternoon at Rogers Centre — in a sport the hosts bought a giant second-inning rally from their offense, a dominant begin from right-hander Kevin Gausman and a bunch of dazzling performs defensively — the door to a Dodgers comeback opened within the prime of the eighth inning.
However, within the sort of squandered sequence the group had averted throughout its return to type, the Dodgers did not capitalize, losing a bases-loaded state of affairs of their eventual 3-1 loss to the scuffling Blue Jays.
“All of the video games we’ve misplaced, we’ve had an opportunity or alternative to come back again and win,” third baseman Max Muncy mentioned. “We simply haven’t had that large hit. Type of the identical factor right now.”
It was Muncy who got here closest to flipping the script within the eighth inning, when the Dodgers (18-12) lastly discovered life towards the Blue Jays bullpen following Gasuman’s seven-inning begin.
Austin Barnes drew a leadoff stroll. Mookie Betts smacked a double into the hole. And with no outs within the inning, the group had the guts of its order coming to the plate.
It didn’t make a distinction.
Shohei Ohtani popped up after chasing two fastballs out of the zone. Teoscar Hernández struck out after Freddie Freeman was deliberately walked in entrance of him. After which, Muncy watched a deep towering drive die on the warning observe, simply lacking additional bases (if no more) on a 370-foot flyout hit just a little too excessive to clear the wall in proper heart.
“Can’t actually say I missed it,” Muncy mentioned, noting the ball’s lofted 42-degree launch angle. “Simply hit it too excessive.”
That each one however sealed the Dodgers’ first defeat since final Saturday, a setback wherein — nicely earlier than their shut name within the eighth inning — virtually nothing appeared to interrupt their approach.
Proper-hander Michael Grove bought knocked round firstly of a scheduled bullpen sport, giving up three runs on three hits — together with Alejandro Kirk‘s homer — within the backside of the second.
Dodgers pitcher Michael Grove delivers towards the Toronto Blue Jays through the first inning Sunday.
(Mark Blinch / Getty Photographs)
His counterpart, Gausman, halted a poor begin to the yr by giving up only one run on a Freeman solo blast within the sixth.
Each time the Dodgers hit the ball exhausting, the Blue Jays (14-15) discovered a solution to keep away from harm.
A deep drive from Ohtani within the first inning was snagged by heart fielder Daulton Varsho, who turned his physique on the final second earlier than making a leaping catch as he crashed into the wall.
A fourth-inning fly ball from Freeman was caught on an equally athletic play by proper fielder George Springer, who drifted to the warning observe earlier than flashing the leather-based with a leaping seize.
Then, Springer went full sprawl on an Andy Pages line drive within the ninth, extinguishing any hope of a late Dodgers comeback — and unlikely extension of their week-long successful streak.
“They made performs,” Roberts mentioned. “It was a very good ballgame.”
Certainly, there have been some silver linings Roberts and his group took from Sunday.
Freeman’s homer was simply his second of the yr, ending a month-long drought that has coincided with irritating inconsistency for the previous MVP — regardless of his .306 batting common on the yr.
“Beginning to extra usually [take] a very good swing, slightly than feeling one good swing each couple days,” Freeman mentioned. I’m not making an attempt to hit residence runs. I don’t care. I simply know as soon as the swing is there for being a very good hitter, the facility will come behind it.”
Pages additionally continued his sturdy begin to his first MLB call-up, gathering two extra hits for a .302 batting common (and .861 on-base-plus-slugging share) via his first 11 profession video games.
“I’m glad that he’s getting a very good little run,” Roberts mentioned this week of Pages, the membership’s prime outfield prospect. “He’s a hitter first with some energy behind it. I prefer it.”
The one Dodgers star who didn’t do a lot Sunday: Ohtani, who cemented solely his second hitless sport within the final two weeks together with his pop-out within the eighth inning.
Ohtani chased an inside fastball on the primary pitch of the at-bat, fouling it off to the display. Then, he swung exterior the zone once more on a heater close to his chest, recording the primary of three empty outs that in the end determined the sport.
Roberts didn’t criticize Ohtani’s swing selection, arguing that whereas the pitch was excessive, it was a ball “that I believed he might drive.”
However, like so many different moments Sunday, the swing amounted to nothing, sending the Dodgers to their first defeat in additional than every week.
