LOS ANGELES – In series losses to the San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals at the start of this week’s nine-game homestand, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ struggles had followed a few recurring themes.
Their starting pitching wasn’t great. Their bullpen repeatedly stubbed its toe. And their top-heavy lineup teetered with everyone from Chris Taylor to Freddie Freeman scuffling to start the season.
If all that wasn’t enough, the Dodgers added another problem to the mix Friday night.
In a 9-4 loss to the New York Mets to open this weekend’s three-game series, the Dodgers’ already shaky defense committed several more costly errors, emerging as the latest problem to address in what has become a 2-5 skid at Chavez Ravine this week.
Friday could have been a day for the Dodgers (12-10) to take a step forward.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto grinded through the longest start of his rookie season, completing six stressful innings despite giving up four runs (one was unearned, thanks to some defensive miscues in the second) and seven hits.
The Dodgers briefly erased an early four-run deficit, mounting the kind of mid-game rally that has been rare since the opening weeks of the year.
Taylor even got a key hit, snapping his one-for-35 start (including an 0-for-30 mark entering Friday) by tying the game on a two-run single in the sixth.
Alas, it wasn’t enough — not on a night the Dodgers squandered other prime scoring opportunities, once again struggled to find production from the bullpen, and most consequentially were hurt by several misplays in the field.
The Dodgers’ shoddy defense started in the second inning.
After DJ Stewart opened the scoring with a solo home run off Yamamoto, Francisco Alvarez reached second on a throwing error by catcher Will Smith, who airmailed an underhand toss on a dribbler in front of the plate.
Smith then failed to corral a potential inning-ending third strike on a foul tip, allowing Harrison Bader to plate Alvarez with a single to center – an RBI aided by Andy Pages’ bobbling of the ball in the outfield, negating any attempt for a play at the plate.
The Mets stretched their lead to 4-0 in the third, before Yamamoto finally settled down (he racked up a season-high nine strikeouts while pitching into the sixth inning for the first time in MLB) and the Dodgers’ scuffling offense found some life.
Teoscar Hernández hit an RBI single in the fourth inning, raising his batting average with runners in scoring position this year to .333.
Shohei Ohtani knocked in another run in the fifth, delivering in a situational at-bat after starting the year one for 19 with runners in scoring position.
Taylor even came through in the clutch, roping a two-run single to left with the bases loaded in the sixth inning to tie the game at 4-4.
But then, just as the Dodgers had climbed back into the game, a combination of bad defense and relief pitching allowed the Mets (11-8) to take control again.
With one out in the seventh, Mookie Betts suffered his third error of the year at shortstop by spiking a routine throw to first. In the next at-bat, Francisco Lindor took right-hander Daniel Hudson deep, launching a two-run blast that put the Mets back in front.
The Dodgers bullpen kept digging a bigger hole from there. Joe Kelly gave up two runs in the eighth, raising his ERA to 7.27. Ryan Brasier was tagged with an insurance run in the ninth, raising his ERA to 5.00 in a continued regression from last year.
Amid all those mounting issues, the last thing the Dodgers needed was for their defensive concerns to resurface, as well.
Instead, on a rare night owner Mark Walter was in attendance, the team’s recent struggles only worsened – further highlighting flaws that even Walter’s $1.4 billion of spending this offseason have thus far failed to prevent.
