Shohei Ohtani had a strong two-way performance on his World Series ring giveaway day, but sloppy defense resulted in the Los Angeles Dodgers dropping their rubber match to the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium.
With the Dodgers holding a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth, Jordan Walker singled to center field that pulled the Cardinals even. Andy Pages fired the ball to Alex Freeland, who then made an ill-advised attempt to get an out at second base when Walker looked to take an extra bag.
The ball went past Miguel Rojas and rolled into right field, allowing another run to score and giving St. Louis a decided lead.
“Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a close play and just made a bad throw,” Freeland said after the Dodgers’ 5-3 loss to the Cardinals.
Freeland, who has only played six games with the Dodgers, believes he is still getting used to playing third base at the Major League level.
“Every day is a learning curve, whether we play good or we play bad, there’s something to learn from it every single day,” Freeland said. “So take today’s lesson and move on.”
Miguel Rojas takes blame for Dodgers loss
Rojas also took responsibility for a couple of defensive mistakes he made on Wednesday. Among them was losing a pop-up in the sun that led to the Cardinals scoring a run in the third inning.
Rojas additionally lamented not communicating with Mookie Betts better on a ground ball in which they could have gotten the lead runner out at second base.
“Mookie got a ball at short that I should have told him to throw to me at second base so we can get the lead out, and I feel like that was the game right there,” Rojas noted.
“So they scored the run after. The guy is supposed to be at first base instead of at second. I’m not talking about getting a double play on that ball, but we should have got the lead out, and that run scored, and he hurt us.
“It’s going to be really hard to swallow for me today, because I was involved without having the ball. I feel like I could have done a better job communicating with Mookie to tell him that the sun was in my eyes in the first inning, and then that play right there to tell him that I was going to be able to get to second base.
“Making those mistakes sometimes make you better, because you’re going to learn from it and move forward. But unfortunately, it cost us the game.”
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