Walks, shoddy defense lead to second straight walk-off loss for Dodgers

The law of averages says that any that can happen will happen eventually. So, you got to figure that sooner or later the Dodgers will win one of these tight, extra-innings games. Wednesday night was not that night, unfortunately. Garrett Cleavinger gave up two run-scoring singles in the bottom of the eleventh inning, and the Cubs won the final game of this three-game set by a score of 6-5.

For much of the game, the Dodgers were in the lead. They scored single runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, which were enough to counteract Jake Marisnick‘s two-run homer off Walker Buehler in the bottom of the fifth. In the third inning, Max Muncy got the scoring started with a home run to left center off of the Cubs’ starting pitcher Adbert Alzolay. It was Muncy’s second home run in as many nights, and Mad Max is really starting to show signs of coming out of his slump.

In the fifth, Gavin Lux hit an opposite field triple to score Chris Taylor all the way from first. Like Muncy, Lux too had a two-hit night and is starting to heat up at the plate.

In the sixth, the Dodgers loaded up the bases with nobody out, but had to settle for only one run, on a Will Smith sac fly to center. Again, the Dodgers’ inability to cash in on scoring opportunities would come back to haunt them later in the game. On Wednesday night, they only managed 2-12 with runners in scoring position. This has become a theme in first six weeks of the season. It’s not that the Dodgers are not getting men on base. They’re just not taking advantage of scoring opportunities when they present themselves.

So with their inability to score, the Dodgers went into the late innings clinging to a 3-2. Which would be fine if the Dodgers had the defense and relief pitching to make it hold up. Unfortunately, neither aspect of the Dodgers’ game was very impressive on Wednesday night. In the bottom of the eighth, Blake Treinen came in in relief and promptly walked ex-Dodger Joc Pederson. Then, in probably the one play that sealed the Dodgers’ fate for the night, Kris Bryant hit a hot ground ball toward the hole. It was fielded cleanly by Corey Seager, and it seemed that a double play was about to begin. But Seager rushed his throw and sent second baseman Gavin Lux sprawling to the infield dirt. Instead of two outs and nobody on base, there were no outs and two on.

Javier Baez then hit into a fielder’s choice to score Pederson from third. Again, it was a completely unnecessary run. First, Pederson shouldn’t have been on base in the first place, but was walked. Second, he should have been eliminated on the front end of a 6-4-3, but wasn’t. The Dodgers simply have to clean this up if they want to have any chance of repeating as champions.

The score remained tied at three until the end of regulation play. The tenth inning began with Gavin Lux on second base. After two quick outs, Justin Turner coaxed a two-out walk from Cubs reliever Alec Mills. Then, Max Muncy came up big for the second time in the game. He ripped a gapper to left that scored Lux easily. Turner was waved home and tried to slide around the tag of catcher Wilson Contreras. He was called out on the field, but it looked like Contreras may not have given Turner a lane to the plate. However, the call was upheld on appeal and the Dodgers had to settle for just one in the top of the tenth.

Kenley Jansen came on to try to save the victory for the Dodgers in the bottom of the tenth. But, guess what? Another lead-off walk, just like in the eighth inning. And after a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, Joc Pederson hit a towering fly ball that kind of died in the night air. It was caught by Mookie Betts at the fence, but a run scored. If you want some good humor, watch the footage of Pederson pimping what he thought was the game-winning home run only to realize seconds later that it was only a sac fly.

After intentionally walking the bases loaded, Jansen got a double play ball and the inning was over. It was on to the eleventh. Will Smith led off with a single, and quickly the Dodgers had men on first and third, nobody out. After a Chris Taylor strikeout, Sunday’s hitting hero Matt Beaty came to the plate. He hit a ground ball to the right side that was fielded by Anthony Rizzo near the first base bag. But Rizzo threw to second to start a double play. Javy Baez, however, thought that Rizzo had already touched first, so he was busy tagging Smith while the go-ahead run crossed home plate. The Dodgers managed to reload the bases in that inning, but Mookie Betts continued his struggles at the plate and grounded out to end the inning. going into the It was now 5-4 Dodgers going into the bottom of the eleventh.

The inning started positively enough. New Dodgers pitcher Garrett Cleavinger struck out the first two hitters he faced. But Matt Duffy hit the first pitch he saw up the middle for a game-tying single. Now, Cleavinger had to face Anthony Rizzo with the game on the line. Duffy stole second base and now it would only take a single to win the game. And that is just what Rizzo delivered. He hit a 1-2 pitch the opposite way through the Dodgers’ shifted infield. By the time left fielder Matt Beaty corralled the ball, Duffy had already crossed home plate with the winning run. Game over.

This loss now puts your Los Angeles Dodgers in third place in the NL West. And, more disturbingly, the Dodgers are now 1-6 in extra inning games. Which is not great.

After an off-day on Thursday, the Dodgers try to regroup and get back on track down in Anaheim against Mike Trout and the the “Los Angeles” Angels. Usually, there is a lot of support for the Dodgers when they play away games against the Angels. The way they’ve been playing lately, now I’m not so sure. Julio Urias gets the ball for the visiting Dodgers on Friday. Game time, 6:40 pm.