LOS ANGELES -- For weeks, the Dodgers have been adamant that their lineup was built for the postseason. An order that scored more than 900 runs during the regular season was motivated to put a disappointing loss to the Padres in last year¡¯s National League Division Series behind it.?
Through two games, however, nothing appears to have changed, and that offense has disappeared at the worst possible time for the Dodgers.
For the second consecutive game in the best-of-five NLDS against the D-backs, the Dodgers¡¯ offense couldn¡¯t come through in big situations and the club now faces elimination following a 4-2 loss in Game 2 on Monday at Dodger Stadium.
In all best-of-five postseason series, teams to go down 0-2 have come back 10 out of 88 times. The last team to come back from this hole after losing the first two games at home was the 2015 Blue Jays against the Rangers.?
¡°They¡¯ve gotten the big hit,¡± said Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy. ¡°In the playoffs, that¡¯s really what matters. We've got to get the hit when it matters. They¡¯ve done that several times and we haven¡¯t.¡±
A couple of days after Clayton Kershaw delivered the worst outing of his career, Bobby Miller, who was making his postseason debut, suffered the same fate. Miller didn¡¯t have any control of his secondary pitches and the D-backs¡¯ offense made him pay whenever he was in the zone with his heater.?
The D-backs jumped on Miller for three runs in the first inning, a game after getting to Kershaw for six in the opening frame. Miller recorded just five outs on Monday, making the Dodgers the third team in postseason history to have multiple starters fail to complete two innings in a single Division Series, joining the 1999 and 2021 Red Sox.
But as big of a failure as the starting pitching has been through two games in this series, the Dodgers¡¯ pitching plan hasn¡¯t seemed to matter because the offense has rarely shown signs of life.
¡°I thought all night long we had pitches to hit, but we just couldn¡¯t do much with them,¡± said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. ¡°There¡¯s certainly fight. There always has been. But it comes down to results, too.¡±
Through two games, those results have not been good. In the first, the Dodgers tried to answer back against Zac Gallen, but J.D. Martinez went down swinging to strand a pair of runners. In the fifth, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman had a chance to put their imprints on the series, with Betts coming up with two on and one out.
Betts, however, grounded into a fielder¡¯s choice on the first pitch he saw from Gallen. Freeman then went down looking on a 3-2 curveball that froze him. Gallen threw three consecutive curveballs to end the at-bat. Betts and Freeman are a combined 1-for-13 with no extra-base hits in this series.
¡°We had a couple opportunities and we just didn¡¯t cash it in,¡± Betts said. ¡°For me and Freddie, that¡¯s kind of our role and we¡¯re not doing it. I take ownership in that. We just have to figure out a way, man. There are no excuses.¡±
As big as those blown opportunities were, the Dodgers kept getting chances. In the sixth, trailing by three runs, they loaded the bases with one out. Kik¨¦ Hern¨¢ndez, who was pinch-hitting for David Peralta, hit a 1-2 fastball back up the middle that was gobbled up by a diving Ketel Marte. Still, the Dodgers cut the deficit to two runs following Hern¨¢ndez¡¯s RBI infield single.
James Outman then came up against the left-hander Andrew Saalfrank. Outman aggressively swung at a 2-0 breaking ball that was out of the zone. A few pitches later, he swung over the top of a sinker for the second out of the inning. With the right-hander Ryan Thompson pitching, the Dodgers turned to Kolten Wong over Miguel Rojas, but Wong grounded out weakly to Christian Walker to end the threat.?
Overall, the Dodgers went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and have been held to four runs through two games in the series.
¡°I think it¡¯s more frustration upon ourselves,¡± Freeman said. ¡°The fifth and sixth innings, I think a lot of us aren¡¯t going to be able to sleep tonight. A couple pitches I missed will make me not sleep.¡±
With their season now on the line, the Dodgers could contemplate some lineup changes, particularly trying to get Hern¨¢ndez and Taylor some at-bats. But in the end, regardless of who gets a start on Wednesday, the Dodgers will have to come up big in key situations.
Los Angeles has now lost five consecutive postseason games in the NLDS. A sixth defeat ends their season much earlier than anybody anticipated and will add another chapter of disappointment in October.
¡°We just have to find a way to execute, man,¡± Betts said. ¡°We have to find a way to execute. There¡¯s nothing else really to be said.¡±