Mookie Betts aggravated his right hip injury and the Los Angeles Dodgers were hurt by an inability to capitalize on multiple opportunities in a 4-3 loss to the L.A. Angels in 10 innings.
David Price turned in one of his best starts of the season but was undone by surrendering a pair of solo home runs that magnified the Dodgers’ inability to add to their lead.
Price retired the first nine batters faced before allowing a ground-rule double to David Fletcher to lead off the fourth inning. Price still faced the minimum as Fletcher was later picked off.
The Angels began to make headway in the fifth behind Jose Iglesias’ solo home run with two outs. Jack Mayfield then tied the game with his solo homer in the sixth inning, chasing Price from the game.
The Dodgers had staked Price an early lead as Betts opened the bottom of the first with a single and Justin Turner doubled to put two on with nobody out. Albert Pujols’ RBI groundout put L.A. ahead 1-0.
But it came with cause for concern as Betts appeared bothered by his lingering right hip issue when going first to third base on Turner’s extra-base hit, and when scoring on Pujols’ soft grounder.
Betts remained in the game, later hit an RBI single to give the Dodgers what was a 2-0 lead at the time, but came out as part of a double-switch to start the seventh inning. The Dodgers announced his removal was due to right hip discomfort.
While the Dodgers were squandering multiple opportunities with runners on base, Blake Treinen contributed four big outs to end the seventh inning and get through the eighth.
Kenley Jansen kept the game tied in the ninth inning but the Dodgers couldn’t take advantage and wound up losing because the Angels scored two runs in the 10th. The Dodgers pushed one across in the bottom half of the inning and left the winning run at first base.
The Dodgers fell to 1-12 in extra innings this season.
Dodgers out of sync with Giants
The Dodgers’ loss to the Angels was further magnified in that the National League West-leading San Francisco Giants had already fallen to the Milwaukee Brewers. Both results kept the Dodgers four games back in the division.
Since July 2, there have only been two instances where the Giants lost to an opponent other than the Dodgers, and L.A. also won on that same day.
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