Sports

/

ArcaMax

Dodgers overcome Clayton Kershaw's rough start only for bullpen to struggle in loss

Mike DiGiovanna, Los Angeles Times on

Published in Baseball

LOS ANGELES — Saturday night’s game did not start or end well for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who saw left-hander Clayton Kershaw get roughed up for four runs and four hits in the first inning and relievers Michael Kopech, Evan Phillips and Joe Kelly give up four runs over the final three innings of a 9-8, 10-inning loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in Chavez Ravine.

The Rays tied the score 7-7 in the top of the ninth on Junior Caminero’s leadoff home run to center field off Phillips, who had recovered from a rocky July to allow no earned runs in 8 1/3 innings of his first 10 August games. Phillips struck out the next three batters to keep the Dodgers even.

Jose Caballero then hit a two-run home run to left-center off Kelly to give the Rays a 9-7 lead in the top of the 10th. The Dodgers scored in the bottom of the 10th on Mookie Betts’ sacrifice fly to center, but Rays left-hander Garrett Cleavinger got Freddie Freeman to ground out to second to end the game.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the Dodgers and reduced their National League West lead over Arizona to three games.

The Dodgers were trailing 5-3 when Max Muncy led off the fifth with a bloop double that fell between left fielder Dylan Carlson and Caballero, the shortstop. Muncy took third on Tommy Edman’s groundout to second and scored on Miguel Rojas’ RBI single to left.

Shohei Ohtani then reached for a 92-mph split-fingered fastball on the outer half from Rays right-hander Taj Bradley and poked a 338-foot homer into the first row of seats near the right-field foul pole — the shortest homer of his seven-year career — for a 6-5 Dodgers lead.

Dodgers reliever Ryan Brasier retired the side in order in the sixth, and Blake Treinen survived a scoreless seventh with the help of Rojas, the shortstop who made a diving stop of a Caminero grounder to the hole and threw to second to nail Brandon Lowe, who had doubled to open the inning, for the first out.

Rojas lined a solo homer to left for a 7-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh, but the Rays pulled to within 7-6 in the top of the eighth with a run off Kopech, snapping the right-hander’s 10 1/3-inning scoreless streak since his July 29 trade from the Chicago White Sox.

Tampa Bay loaded the bases with no outs on Josh Lowe’s single, Caballero’s double and Alex Jackson’s walk. Yandy Diaz hit a sacrifice fly to deep left to score Josh Lowe, but Jackson was thrown out trying to advance to second by Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández. Brandon Lowe popped out to shortstop to end the inning.

Kershaw dug a 4-0 hole in a 32-pitch first inning that featured Brandon Lowe’s double, Caminero’s RBI single, Christopher Morel’s double — Caminero scoring on Hernández’s error in left field–Carlson’s walk and Jonny DeLuca’s two-run single.

Kershaw recovered to blank the Rays on three hits over the second, third and fourth innings, and the Dodgers trimmed the deficit to 4-3 in the fourth when Ohtani reached on catcher’s interference, Betts hit an RBI double to left and Teoscar Hernández drove a two-run homer to center, his 27th of the season and first since Aug. 10.

Tampa Bay scored once more off Kershaw in the fifth, Caminero leading off with a single, Carlson hitting a ground-rule double and Josh Lowe hitting a sacrifice fly to right to push the lead to 5-3.

The Dodgers were still basking in the afterglow of Friday night’s dramatic 7-3 victory over the Rays, when Ohtani hit a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning to become only the sixth player in major league history to hit 40 homers and steal 40 bases in a season.

 

“It’s a moment that’s going to be embedded in the story books forever, and it helped us win a big ballgame,” manager Dave Roberts said on Saturday. “And I’m sure there’s going to be a lot more special moments coming.”

The Dodgers hope Ohtani, who suffered through six losing seasons with the Angels, delivers some memorable moments in his first postseason in October, but Roberts thinks he could make even more history in September by becoming the first player to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in a season.

“There’s a lot of baseball left, and if anyone can do it, Shohei can,” Roberts said. “But I think the hard part is understanding that it’s attainable, but not trying to make that the sole goal. I think he’s very aware of just taking good at-bats and trying to help us win, and if (a 50-50 season) that happens, great.”

—Slow go for Tyler Glasnow

When Tyler Glasnow was placed on the injured list because of elbow tendonitis in St. Louis last weekend, the right-hander was confident he would be able to return when his 15-day IL stint was up, or shortly thereafter. That will not be the case. Not even close.

Glasnow played catch for the first time since going on the IL on Saturday, but he only got out to 60 feet. Roberts said Glasnow will need to progress to 90 feet, 120 feet “and beyond,” and then to a bullpen mound before throwing a simulated game or making a minor league rehabilitation start.

“I think it’s going to be a slower process than we all anticipated initially,” Roberts said. “The hope is that he’ll be back before the end of the regular season.”

—Hey Siri!

Rays center fielder Jose Siri, who threw the ball that Shohei Ohtani hit for a walk-off grand slam on Friday night back into the right-field bleachers, said through an interpreter that he “had no idea” the homer was Ohtani’s 40th of the season, moving the slugger into the exclusive 40-40 club.

“We just got walked off,” Siri said before Saturday night’s game. “I threw it to a fan.”

—Short hops

Ohtani’s rehabilitation from a second major elbow surgery progressed to a bullpen mound for the first time on Saturday, the right-hander throwing 10 pitches before the game against the Rays. The Dodgers have insisted that Ohtani will not pitch in any capacity this season, but he is on course to return as a two-way player in 2025.


©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

Comments

blog comments powered by Disqus