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- The Dodgers struggle to hold back the Giants and give up three runs in the seventh and ninth innings of a 9-3 loss to rival San Francisco.
- Shortstop Mookie Betts played in his first game since sustaining a strained right oblique last month, finishing with a single and throwing out a runner at home.
- The Dodgers know they’re “in a funk” on offense, but manager Dave Roberts says he’s confident the team will turn things around.
The Dodgers were building momentum one no-out single at a time, an offensive cascade threatening to break through — until it didn’t.
Until a bases-loaded opportunity resulted in just a pair of runs. And the Dodgers’ struggling offense fell quiet again.
Their 9-3 loss to the Giants on Monday was more of the same for an offense that hasn’t scored more than three runs in a game this homestand, four games in.
“We’re not taking this lightly right now,” said Max Muncy, who went two for four with a home run. “But we also understand it is 162 [games] and you know, we’ve gone through stretches like this in the past, and we’ve also gone through good stretches. So we’re having a lot of conversations, but it’s also trying not to overreact to something still early in May.”
Shortstop Mookie Betts returned from injury, but he didn’t magically fix the Dodgers’ problems.
They hadn’t expected him to, either.
René Cárdenas, the first radio announcer to broadcast major league baseball games in Spanish to a domestic audience while with the Dodgers, has died.
“I know I’m not the hero,” Betts said before the game. “It’s going to take us all. It kind of is what it is. We’re going to go through our ups and downs. It’s important for everyone to know it’s going to take all of us and not just one guy getting through their struggles or whatever it is.”
When the Dodgers (24-17) activated Betts on Monday, they optioned second baseman Alex Freeland to triple-A Oklahoma City in a corresponding move.
It wasn’t quite clear what to expect from Betts, who had a single and prevented a run by throwing out a runner at home.
His oblique muscle strain lingered longer than initially anticipated. And once Betts felt comfortable swinging a bat without risking aggravation, his hitting ramp-up was swift. The Dodgers plan to ease him back by playing him in two games and giving him one off for the first week or so.
“It’s part of it,” manager Dave Roberts said over the weekend about the Dodgers missing Betts’ bat at the top of the order. “It’s certainly not all of it. I think that we certainly have enough talent to be better than we have. But adding Mookie’s at-bat quality, I think will certainly help. We just haven’t been as consistent as a group as we should be even without Mookie.”
It’s not for lack of trying. A still-slumping Shohei Ohtani, for example, took batting practice on the field before the game — traditionally a rare measure for the four-time MVP. Monday marked the third time he’s taken on-field batting practice already this season.
That didn’t work its magic either. He grounded out to the right side of the infield three times and struck out twice.
“It just seems like there’s a lot more balls to the pull side, a lot more balls on the right side of the infield than there has been the last couple of years,” Roberts said. “So that’s telling me that there’s a little overanxiousness, in my opinion.”
Ohtani is set to pitch Wednesday, and Roberts said he plans to give Ohtani a day off from hitting either then or Thursday.
“I think he’s just trying to swing out of it,” Roberts said. “The thought is understandable. But when you’re a really dangerous hitter and pitchers are not going to give in to you, then it’s really not a good mindset. Because you’ve sort of got to take what they give you. And so tonight, they clearly weren’t going to give in to him, and he took the bait.”
Muncy, the Dodgers’ best hitter for the past month, again had the big swing. His solo homer in the sixth tied the game after Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki gave up three runs in five-plus innings.
The Dodgers failed, however, to put together any big rallies.
Their best chance came in the fourth inning. Up to that point, the Dodgers had only reached scoring position once against Giants starting pitcher Trevor McDonald.
The fourth-inning rally fell flat, however, as the Dodgers’ struggles with the bases loaded continued. They entered Monday hitting just .200 with the bases loaded. Though it’s a small sample size this time of year, it was the third-worst mark in the majors, above only the Blue Jays and Marlins.
After a lengthy hitless streak, Shohei Ohtani got two hits Wednesday. So, how is he going about trying to make sure his good day becomes the start of an offensive turnaround?
Freddie Freeman, Kyle Tucker and Will Smith hit consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Then, Muncy shot a sharp grounder through the right side of the field to drive in the Dodgers’ first run, tying the game at one apiece.
Andy Pages then grounded into a double play, but another run scored.
With two outs, Teoscar Hernández — who went two-for-three from the No. 8 spot Monday — drew a walk to extend the inning. And Hyeseong Kim struck out to end it.
“We’re in a funk right now, and it’s a team-wide thing,” Muncy said. “You have to try to find the positives out of it. We are creating situations where we can have good things happen. We’re just not getting a hit here or there. So, you try to look at the positives. We are creating situations, we’re just in a funk at cashing them out.”
The Giants (17-24) created a similar opportunity for themselves in the seventh inning, and the three runs they scored were the difference. They loaded the bases with three straight one-out singles off Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia, who then walked the go-ahead run.
“At the end of the day, I need to be able to make pitches, get the guys back in, and I didn’t do that tonight,” Vesia said. “This one was on me tonight.”
Right-hander Will Klein replaced Vesia and struck out the first batter he faced. But Willy Adames tagged Klein for a two-run single on a line drive into shallow right field.
The Giants loaded the bases again in the ninth, drawing four straight walks (one of which was intentional) against Dodgers reliever Wyatt Mills, making his second major-league appearance of the season.
They racked up three more runs, on a single from Adames, another walk and a ground out.
“It’s not fun when you’re going through it,” Roberts said. “But you’ve just got to remain positive. You do. I think that building on some wins and knowing that the guys are working, that it will turn. It always has. That’s what I’m hanging my hat on.”
