Dustin May struggles as Dodgers fall to Giants for

SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers finally appeared just like the Dodgers again on Friday evening.

Too dangerous it didn’t occur until they had been already down six runs.

For the first time in a week, the highest-scoring offense in baseball finally rediscovered its high-flying type, handing San Francisco Giants ace Logan Webb his worst begin all season while sending shivers up the backbone of the orange-clad contingent at Oracle Park.

But by the time it occurred, the membership had already dug a gap too deep for even its star-studded lineup to climb out of, unable to fully erase an early six-run deficit in a 8-7 loss to their division rivals — sending the Dodgers to a seven-game dropping streak that marks their longest skid since September 2017.

“I like the fight. I thought one through nine, there were good at-bats in there, scored some runs, had a chance to win again,” supervisor Dave Roberts stated. “And unfortunately, on the pitching side, we just couldn’t prevent enough.”

Friday, of course, never figured to favor the Dodgers given the distinction in caliber of the beginning pitching matchup.

On one facet stood Webb, the artful and relentless All-Star right-hander who has largely dominated the Dodgers in his seven-year profession.

On the opposite was Dustin May, the once-promising Dodgers right-hander who has yet to understand his tantalizing potential in what has been his first totally healthy big-league season so far.

Still, for a little while on a cold evening along the San Francisco Bay, little separated the 2 sinker-ball specialists, the Dodgers and Giants locked in the sort of close contest that has been the hallmark of this rivalry in current years.

In the highest of the third, Shohei Ohtani even put the Dodgers in entrance, splashing his NL-leading thirty second home run of the season into McCovey Cove past proper subject for only the eighth splash-down home run by a Dodger participant in Oracle Park historical past.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani tosses his bat after hitting a two-run home run in the third inning against the Giants on Friday.

(David Barreda / Los Angeles Times)

But finally, May got here unglued, giving up seven runs in much less than 5 innings as the Giants surged to an 8-2 lead. And though the Dodgers (56-39) finally obtained to within one, tagging Webb with a season-high six runs, they got here up empty in their last couple journeys to the plate, losing a lot of optimistic subplots in one other dropping story.

“Today we were able to string some hits together, put some innings together,” shortstop Mookie Betts stated. “But we just come up short.”

After beginning his evening with elevated fastball velocity and ruthless assault of the strike zone, May misplaced his command in the fourth inning.

Dodgers pitcher Dustin May delivers against the Giants on Friday.

(David Barreda / Los Angeles Times)

Rafael Devers walked on 4 pitches to begin the inning. Matt Chapman acquired one other free cross despite a mid-at-bat mound go to from catcher Will Smith. And with one out, Jung Hoo Lee laced a two-run triple over the outstretched glove of Teoscar Hernández, who returned to the lineup after lacking the final 4 video games with a foot contusion but still appeared hobbled while attempting to monitor the ball down in the right-field hole.

“Just got a little bit out of sync, couldn’t time things back up,” May stated of his supply, which has teetered between flashes of dominance and stretches of frustration during his return from a second profession elbow surgical procedure.

“During my warm-up throws in the fourth, it felt a little off. Trying to get my foot down a little earlier didn’t really help. That’s been a cue. But yeah, it just went bad.”

Things obtained worse in the fifth, when the Giants (52-43) plated 5 more while sending 10 batters to the plate.

Dominic Smith led the inning off with a homer. May then gave up a single and two walks to load the bases. The Dodgers missed their likelihood to escape the inning, when Hyeseong Kim failed to flip a tough but potential inning-ending double play shortly enough at second base.

May was changed by Anthony Banda, who was greeted with one other two-run triple by Willy Adames (who had already homered to open the scoring in the second inning) and a run-scoring infield single from Lee, who outraced Banda to first base to punctuate a painfully long inning.

“To win a big-league ballgame is tough, but you’ve still got to pitch well, you’ve got to catch it and you’ve got to take good at-bats,” Roberts stated. “If all three of those things don’t line up in one night, it’s hard to get a win.”

Mookie Betts grimaces in ache after being hit by a pitch in the sixth inning against the Giants on Friday evening.

(David Barreda / Los Angeles Times)

It was at that level, coming off a six-game stretch in which they’d scored 10 complete runs, that the Dodgers’ bats finally got here to life.

In the highest of the sixth, Hernández launched a two-run double that Lee couldn’t fairly corral on the run at the warning monitor, before Michael Conforto adopted with a two-run homer that chased Webb and cut the deficit to two.

In the seventh, the Dodgers struck again, when Betts slid into third after hitting one other ball just past Lee’s attain in heart and later scored on Smith’s RBI single.

“It’s definitely more encouraging,” stated Betts, who has been among the coldest hitters in the Dodgers lineup recently. “I can’t speak for everyone. But I haven’t done anything this whole time … Just to get us going, get some hits there, that’s the positive that you can take out of it.”

That, however, was as close as the Dodgers obtained. Smith was left stranded to finish the seventh. Kim’s two-out double in the eighth was squandered. And, in essentially the most irritating of endings, a two-on, one-out alternative in the ninth went by the wayside when Smith rolled into a double play.

The division lead is down to 4.

And as the Dodgers proceed to stumble toward the All-Star break, ethical victories stay the only wins in sight.

“I know it sucks, but you have to try to take some positive out of it,” Betts stated. “At least we battled back.”