Miscommunication led to a soaring pitch count for Tony Gonsolin and put the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deficit they never recovered from in a 1-0 loss, their second consecutive defeat at the hands of the San Francisco Giants.
Gonsolin faced a bases-loaded jam and threw 39 pitches in the first inning but managed to keep the Giants to just one run. Trouble began immediately as Gavin Lux’s effort to track down a fly ball in right field led to he and Joc Pederson not communicating.
Lux peeled off at the last second but Pederson moved to avoid colliding with his teammate, and the ball fell for a leadoff single. A one-out walk and single loaded the bases and the Giants took a lead on Kevin Pillar’s RBI groundout.
Despite laboring early and walking three of the first 10 batters faced, Gonsolin managed to get through four innings and keep the deficit at 1-0. However, it was a 10th consecutive game a Dodgers starter didn’t go past five innings, and fourth in a row where the starter didn’t complete at least five.
While it was another short outing in what’s been a string of them, the Dodgers offense bore much of the blame Saturday night. Tyler Beede allowed four hits and issued three walks but also had five strikeouts in his five innings of work.
He stranded the bases loaded in the second inning — benefitting from Gonsolin being up to bat with two outs — and did so again in the fifth, though that time retiring Cody Bellinger.
L.A. mustered all of four hits on the night and only had two reach after Justin Turner’s two-out walk loaded the bases in the fifth inning. Kiké Hernandez twice drove a ball deep, only for it to be caught on the warning track both times.
The lack of offense negated what was another impressive effort by the bullpen as a whole. Caleb Ferguson, Yimi Garcia, Dustin May, Joe Kelly, Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen combined for six strikeouts and allow three hits and four walks over five scoreless innings.
With the loss, the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the National League West remained at four, and the earliest they can do so is Tuesday.
