KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Playing down to the level of their opponents at times on this six-game road trip through Denver and Kansas City hadn’t produced a loss for the Dodgers – until Saturday afternoon.
The Dodgers were held scoreless into the seventh inning and Ben Casparius had the worst outing of his budding MLB career as the Royals snapped a six-game losing streak with a 9-5 victory.
The Dodgers trailed 9-1 with just five hits after eight innings. Three of those hits Saturday came from Freddie Freeman – as positive a sign as the Dodgers could get in a loss that was thoroughly lopsided until a four-run ninth inning.
Freeman came into the game in his deepest slump as a Dodger – 7 for his past 54 and 12 for 79 (.152) over his previous 21 games without a home run. Freeman’s frustration had become so obvious that Dodgers manager Dave Roberts floated the idea of giving him the day off Sunday.
The mere mention of a day off must have been just the trigger Freeman needed. He was on base five times Saturday on two singles, two walks and his first home run since May 11 in Arizona (41 games and 178 plate appearances ago).
But that home run was the extent of the Dodgers’ offense until the ninth inning.
Shohei Ohtani made his third start of the season, breaking new ground – the second inning. He retired six of eight batters faced, allowing a single to Bobby Witt Jr. and a walk before getting a double play to end the first inning.
The double-play ball came on a 101.7 mph fastball to Vinnie Pasquantino, the fastest pitch of Ohtani’s MLB career and the fastest by any Dodgers pitcher this year.
He left after 27 pitches and things went downhill for the Dodgers.
Casparius gave up three consecutive two-out hits in the third inning – one a bloop double that dropped in front of Teoscar Hernandez just inside the right field foul line and the next a two-run double off the left-field wall by Maikel Garcia.
Two innings later, Casparius gave up a three-run home run to Pasquantino, also with two outs. The rookie right-hander had a 2.93 ERA over 40 innings when the Dodgers decided to put him in their rotation, paired with Ohtani as ‘opener.’ Casparius has given up 11 runs in 12⅔ innings since then.
Nine of the first 10 runs the Royals scored off the Dodgers in this series came with two outs.
They didn’t wait so long in the seventh inning, scoring three times off Dodgers reliever Luis Garcia who gave up four hits to the five batters he faced (three doubles).
Related Articles
Dodgers absorb Dustin May’s short start and beat Royals Dodgers’ Ben Casparius settling in as Shohei Ohtani’s pitching partner Shohei Ohtani locks up All-Star spot, 7 Dodgers teammates are finalists Clayton Kershaw closes in on 3,000 Ks as Dodgers sweep Rockies Bad start or hot stretch, Dodgers’ Max Muncy trying to keep it all in perspective Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Dodgers lose to Royals despite Shohei Ohtani’s scoreless start )
Also on site :