Shohei Ohtani in as emergency starter, but Dodgers

BALTIMORE — The telephone calls began early Friday afternoon.

After the Dodgers’ late arrival from Pittsburgh the evening before, scheduled Friday starter Tyler Glasnow reported some dangerous news to the workforce’s training workers: His back tightened up on the flight to Baltimore, and a evening of sleep hadn’t helped.

Suddenly, Glasnow’s availability for the workforce’s series-opener against the Orioles was in doubt.

Thus, Dodgers coaches, staffers and front-office officers in Baltimore and back in Los Angeles started what pitching coach Mark Prior described as a “game of telephone.”

“There was a lot of moving parts,” Prior quipped.

First, the workforce determined to scratch Glasnow from his start, opting for a cautious strategy to what they hope is only a minor issue. According to supervisor Dave Roberts, the workforce is planning to slot Glasnow back into the rotation early next week.

Then, the workforce had to determine who to ship to the mound on Friday instead. At around 2 p.m., the request went to Shohei Ohtani — who had been scratched from his own scheduled pitching start Wednesday in Pittsburgh while battling an sickness, but was lots keen to fill in with the membership in a pinch.

“It’s gonna be OK,” first baseman Freddie Freeman joked as he adopted Ohtani into the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards a few hours later. “The unicorn is here.”

Ohtani did his half as the Dodgers tried to snap a three-game shedding streak, delivering 3 ⅔ scoreless innings on a restricted pitch rely.

But, in their latest dispiriting efficiency, the Dodgers couldn’t make it rely, shedding to the Orioles 2-1 on Samuel Basallo’s walk-off ninth-inning home run against Tanner Scott.

As has been the case a lot of the last a number of weeks, Friday’s recreation was a grind for the Dodgers.

The Baltimore Orioles’ Samuel Basallo flips his bat after hitting a walk-off home run against the Dodgers Friday in Baltimore.

(Stephanie Scarbrough / Associated Press)

Offensively, they struggled to generate — or capitalize — on many possibilities. Baltimore starter Dean Kremer retired his first eight batters, including first-inning fly balls from Mookie Betts and Freeman that died at the wall. When the workforce did create alternatives in the third (getting two aboard with two outs) and the fourth (loading the bases with two outs) they got here up empty; persevering with their second-half struggles with runners in scoring place.

That gave Ohtani little margin for error. But he managed to post zeros anyway.

His fastball was enjoying up, topping out at 101.5 mph. His secondary stuff was sharp, main to 5 strikeouts and 12 swing-and-misses. And when he did face hassle, he acquired out of it, stranding a pair of runners in the third inning and another runner at third base in the fourth, ending his evening with back-to-back strikeouts after Ryan Mountcastle doubled off the third-base bag and superior to third on a wild pitch.

After Ohtani exited, the Dodgers shortly fell behind. In the underside of the fifth, a pair of walks put two aboard for the Orioles. Then, with lead runner Jackson Holliday breaking for third, a sweeper in the dust acquired past Dalton Rushing — who was once again filling in for the injured Will Smith, and allowed his fifth wild pitch in the last two video games.

Holliday turned for home as Rushing scrambled to the backstop. By the time Rushing threw to the plate, Holliday was already sliding in safely for the first run of the sport.

The Dodgers, at least, didn’t path for long. On the first pitch of the sixth, Freeman whacked another fly ball that carried deep enough to get out this time, his nineteenth home run of the yr tying the sport at 1-1.

But then, more frustration adopted. Two runners had been stranded later in the inning, after Rushing was pressured to go away the sport on a painful-looking foul ball off his proper shin and Alex Call struck out to retire the aspect. In the seventh, Betts lined a two-out double in the hole, before Freeman grounded out to go away him caught on base, as nicely.

That all stored the rating degree into the ninth, when Scott, the embattled Dodgers nearer, acquired two outs before making the same mistake that has haunted him all yr.

In a 1-and-2 rely to Basallo, the left-hander left a fastball proper down the center. Basallo crushed it to proper for a no-doubt blast. And on a evening the Dodgers had been hoping Ohtani might present a spark with his short-notice start, the workforce instead fell flat again.