Dodgers losing streak grows to 6 games in loss to

MILWAUKEE — During the Dodgers’ season-long five-game losing streak this week, supervisor Dave Roberts cited a lack of “fight” from his lineup as essentially the most troubling pattern in the staff’s current skid.

On Wednesday in Milwaukee, more battle finally returned — only for the Brewers to still land the knockout punch.

In a 3-2 loss at American Family Field that prolonged the Dodgers’ losing streak to six games, the lineup once again scuffled in a five-hit efficiency while nearer Tanner Scott blew a ninth-inning lead to waste Tyler Glasnow’s encouraging return from the injured listing.

It was a grind of a recreation, with the Dodgers scoring their only runs on a bases-loaded stroll following a hit-and-run play and a sacrifice fly that briefly gave them a 2-1 lead. Alas, Scott gave up a game-tying RBI single to Andrew Vaughn in the ninth, Jackson Chourio walked it off with one other single against Kirby Yates in the underside of the tenth, sending the scuffling Dodgers their longest losing skid since April 2019.

“Knowing the rough patch [we’re in], it’s really hard to take this one, because you just want to stop it,” veteran infielder Miguel Rojas mentioned.

“We had them where we wanted them,” Roberts echoed. “We just couldn’t finish it.”

Indeed, even on a day the Dodgers struggled to rating despite producing more baserunners and cutting down on their current binge of strikeouts, Glasnow’s strong return from the injured listing had the membership in place to win for most of the day.

Making his first begin since going on the injured listing in April because of a shoulder damage, and just his twenty eighth begin in two years with the Dodgers since signing a $136.5-million contract two winters in the past, the lanky right-hander pitched decently over his 5 innings, giving up two hits and three walks with 5 strikeouts.

Glasnow ran into hassle in the second inning, when Christian Yelich singled on a first-pitch fastball, Isaac Collins drew a full-count stroll, and both executed a double-steal to transfer into scoring place. A ten-pitch stroll to Caleb Durbin — ending on a curveball that never ducked into the strike zone — loaded the bases with one out.

However, Glasnow responded, jamming Jake Bauers with a sinker for a come out before blowing Joey Ortiz away with an elevated 96 mph heater.

That sequence was Glasnow at his best: Going after hitters with his premium velocity, and exhibiting no indicators of the tentativeness — or, as Roberts described it in his pregame tackle, “search mode” — that has usually derailed his Dodgers profession.

“[I’m focusing on] going out and pitching, just toeing the mound and kind of getting into that rhythm and keeping the routine,” Glasnow mentioned afterward. “Just going out, be athletic and trust the trainers, strength room, stay healthy and just keep pitching.”

As Glasnow settled into a rhythm, however, the Dodgers (56-38) continued to toil at the plate.

Having scored only one run in 4 of their earlier 5 games, a shorthanded lineup, which bought Tommy Edman back from damage but once again was without Teoscar Hernández in the beginning lineup, struggled to get a beat on artful veteran left-hander José Quintana.

With only a 90-mph fastball and a flurry of funky off-speed pitches, the 36-year-old navigated the first 4 innings without giving up a hit.

A breakthrough finally got here in the fifth inning. After Rojas drew a leadoff stroll (he also had two singles Wednesday), the Dodgers executed a well-timed hit-and-run play, drawing the second baseman out of place just as Esteury Ruiz lined a single through the outlet he vacated. With two outs, James Outman then checked his swing just enough to draw a full-count stroll, loading the bases for Shohei Ohtani to plate the sport’s first run on a four-pitch free cross (benefitting from a couple of borderline ball calls).

And while that 1-0 lead didn’t final long — in the underside of the fifth, Glasnow walked leadoff man Bauers, moved him to second with a balk, then watched helplessly as Bauers stole third and scored on a throw that bounced to the outfield — the Dodgers went back in entrance in the seventh when Mookie Betts lifted a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers, though, squandered alternatives to stretch the lead from, leaving the bases loaded to finish the seventh inning before stranding more baserunners in both the eighth and ninth.

“I thought the way we competed, I liked that,” Roberts mentioned. “Took some good at-bats. I thought we fought. But couldn’t put a crooked number up.”

That left Scott with too little margin to full a four-out save. While the left-hander stranded a runner at second base he inherited in the eighth, three ninth-inning singles from the Brewers tied the rating, culminating with a broken-bat, bloop single from Vaughn that made it 2-2.

Then, after Brewers nearer Trevor Megill struck out the facet in the highest of the tenth, Yates surrendered the game-winning single to Churio in the underside half of the inning, dealing the Dodgers their second-straight collection sweep and an ever-mounting sense of frustration getting into the ultimate days before the All-Star break.

“We can’t really feel sorry about ourselves, because there’s a lot of season left, and we know what we’re looking for,” Rojas mentioned. (*6*)