LOS ANGELES — Apparently after going on a scoring binge Tuesday, the Dodgers’ offense had to sleep it off.
They scored a season-high 15 runs on Tuesday night but managed just a solo home run by Andy Pages on Thursday and lost to the Texas Rangers, 3-1, having totaled just three runs in the two games since their series-opening explosion.
The highlight of Tuesday’s romp was a seven-run sixth inning that featured four home runs. In 20 innings since then, however, the Dodgers were held to four runs and 12 hits by Rangers pitching.
Michael Lorenzen was a mystery for six scoreless innings Thursday. The Rangers starter struck out just two in seven innings and allowed plenty of hard contact. The Dodgers hit 10 balls with exit velocities over 95 mph (Statcast’s standard for a “hard-hit” ball) in the first six innings but only two produced hits – singles by Freddie Freeman in the first inning and Pages in the fourth.
“He was able to mix his pitches really well throughout his outing,” Shohei Ohtani said through his interpreter. “We were able to actually hit the ball hard. It could’ve been a matter of a couple inches here and there.”
Pages produced the only run off Lorenzen (Fullerton High, Cal State Fullerton) when he lined a 1-and-0 sweeper into the seats down the left field line for a solo home run in the seventh inning. He was the first Dodger to touch second base in the game.
“It was a lot of cutters, some changeups in there, some breaking pitches,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think we only punched twice. There were some balls hit hard. There were some bad outs in there. I just thought tonight we would have a chance to build some innings but we couldn’t do that tonight.”
The Rangers did more damage with soft contact.
They scored twice in the first inning with three hits off of opener Michael Grove. One run scored on a ground out, the other on a soft two-out single (67.3 mph off the bat) sliced gently into right field by Wyatt Langford.
Two innings later, two walks by reliever Ryan Yarbrough set Langford up with another two-out opportunity and he went with the same method, dropping an even softer single (58.8 mph) just over the reach of Freeman for another RBI single.
The rest of the relief relay in Thursday’s “bullpen game” kept the Rangers off the board.
The best drama of the night was reserved for the eighth inning.
The Dodgers put the tying runs on base with no outs in the eighth inning after Cavan Biggio was hit by a pitch and went to third on Austin Barnes’ single to right. That brought up the top of the order against veteran reliever David Robertson.
“Well, I put myself in a pretty good pickle there right out of the gate,” Robertson said. “Hit Biggio, which was very frustrating for me to start the inning, especially since I was ahead in the count. Was ahead in count on Barnes too and just left a cookie curveball right in the middle of the zone.
“It sucks when you do that and knowing who’s coming up behind them. I had to dig deep, make some pitches.”
Robertson handled the eighth inning in Wednesday’s 3-2 Rangers win and struck out Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freeman in order. He was the first pitcher this season to strike out that trio in succession.
“Before this series, the only time I got him out was in spring training as a Brave,” Robertson said of Freeman, in particular. He was 4 for 4 in his career against Robertson before this week. Betts was 4 for 10.
“When they got me up (Wednesday), I told (Rangers closer Kirby Yates). I don’t think somebody has looked at the numbers.”
The numbers have changed.
He struck out the three former MVPs in order again Thursday, stranding both baserunners. Betts and Ohtani went down on three pitches each just as they had Wednesday. Freeman fought Robertson for nine pitches Wednesday. Thursday, he fell behind 0-and-2, took a close pitch for a ball, followed off a cutter then swung and missed at a knuckle curve.
“There’s really nothing surprising as the data lays him out. He’s just been able to execute the pitches and get outs,” Ohtani explained.
“He’s been able to execute side to side. Some pitches were pretty close. Some pitches not exactly a strike. But overall, he’s been able to execute pretty well.”
Robertson used the same three-pitch sequence against Ohtani both nights – two cutters followed by a knuckle curve to finish him off.
“I’m only going pitch to pitch out there,” Robertson said. “He’s got so much power, he can literally flick balls out, I’m just trying to not leave a ball in the middle of the zone. I got lucky. He hasn’t faced me a lot.”
Ohtani had home runs in each of the first two games in the series but went 0 for 4 Thursday and has batted .200 (19 for 95) over his past 24 games with 26 strikeouts and eight walks in that time and only one multi-hit game in June.
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“There’s always going to be stretches of ups and down – as a team and personally,” Ohtani said. “Obviously when things aren’t going well, that’s when we put everything under a microscope. My approach has been the same, just trying to put up quality at-bats.”
Roberts acknowledged he thought the Dodgers had the table set for a rally in the eighth inning.
“I thought Ohtani expanded the zone at the top, below,” he said. “I thought Freddie competed, had a good at-bat. He made a good pitch. I thought Mookie, the best pitch he had was that first-pitch curveball.
“Cavan got hit by a pitch. Austin blocks a ball the other way. Started an inning. Had some stress. Unfortunately we couldn’t push anything across.”
Teoscar Hernandez drew a leadoff walk in the ninth against Yates. But Yates then followed Robertson’s lead, striking out Pages, Jason Heyward and Will Smith to close it out.
David Robertson is the only pitcher this season to strike out Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in succession.
He’s done it in back-to-back games. pic.twitter.com/5RRl51XBB8
— MLB (@MLB) June 14, 2024
Dave Roberts on the lack of offense in the last two games and his takeaways from tonight’s loss. pic.twitter.com/5dTOul6fjZ
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 14, 2024
Shohei Ohtani speaks about David Robertson’s effectiveness against the top of the Dodgers lineup. pic.twitter.com/TALaJ6gVcn
— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) June 14, 2024
