LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers aren’t the hottest team in baseball these days. But they can take some credit for the team that is.
The Dodgers’ offense lurched back to life Saturday afternoon but it wasn’t enough against their new overlords. The Milwaukee Brewers handed them an 8-7 defeat.
The Brewers have won nine games in a row, surging into the rear-view mirror of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. And the Dodgers have been co-conspirators. Five of the Brewers’ nine wins have come against the Dodgers.
A lack of offense has been the biggest issue dragging the Dodgers down this month. But it was pitching that failed them Saturday.
Right-hander Emmet Sheehan started for the Dodgers and barely made it out of the third inning. He gave up four runs in that third inning. The first five Brewers reached base, starting with a triple by Blake Perkins on a drive into the right-center field gap that Teoscar Hernandez ran down but let go under his glove and to the wall.
Sheehan eventually escaped the third inning and the Dodgers tied the score in the bottom of the inning. But Sheehan gave up a leadoff home run to Isaac Collins in the fourth and Sheehan’s night was done early.
The Dodgers scored a total of four runs in their first four losses to the Brewers (three in Milwaukee and Friday in Los Angeles). They matched that in the third inning against Brewers starter Freddy Peralta.
After Miguel Rojas drew a leadoff walk, Shohei Ohtani jumped on a first-pitch changeup and sent it 448 feet into the left field pavilion. The two-run home run was Ohtani’s 33rd homer of the season, tops in the National League.
Will Smith singled and Freddie Freeman drew a walk, putting two runners on for Hernandez. He made up for his defensive gaffe with an RBI double. The fourth run of the inning scored on a wild pitch by Peralta.
The Brewers kept scoring after their big inning, and the Dodgers tried to keep up.
The Brewers rebuilt their lead with Collins’ home run and an RBI double by Caleb Durbin off Ben Casparius in the sixth inning. They scored another run in the seventh and Joey Ortiz hit a solo home run off Lou Trivino in the eighth.
The Dodgers matched one of those on three singles in the sixth inning — one from Tommy Edman to end an 0-for-29 stretch and a two-out hit from Ohtani to drive in his third run of the game. Edman and Rojas added solo home runs in the eighth, making it a one-run game when Ohtani drove a fly ball to the warning track to end the inning.
The fly ball – and the Dodgers – came up a little short.
