The Los Angeles Dodgers went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base in a 2-1 walk-off loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. It was the Dodgers’ fourth walk-off loss this season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto bounced back from a subpar outing to throw six scoreless innings. He largely avoided trouble but when running into some traffic, leaned on an effective splitter that got plenty of chase throughout the afternoon.
In one sequence, Yamamoto threw three splitters in a row to Lars Nootbaar to get a strikeout after falling behind in the count. That stranded the bases loaded to keep the game locked in a scoreless tie early.
It also marked the start of the Dodgers’ ace retiring seven batters in a row. The string was snapped by a leadoff walk in the bottom of fifth, and Yamamoto went on to strand two more runners that inning.
Yamamoto scattered four hits and finished with nine strikeouts. The performance eased some concerns over a minor hip issue he’d been dealing with since covering first base during a start on May 26.
But the Dodgers weren’t able to take advantage of Yamamoto’s brilliance or their own opportunities against Erick Fedde. They were without a hit until Mookie Betts’ single with two outs in the third inning.
That put two runners on and was followed by Freddie Freeman drawing a walk to load the bases. Will Smith worked the count full before flying out to center field.
Max Muncy was then stranded after his leadoff single in the fourth inning. Hyeseong Kim led off the fifth with a single and stole second base, but was left at third.
Smith’s single and Muncy’s base hit put two on with nobody out in the sixth inning. They too were stranded, and at that point the Dodgers fell to 1-for-21 in the series with runners in scoring position. Their lone hit being Andy Pages’ infield single on Friday night.
Infield singles by Kim and Betts gave the Dodgers two on base yet again in the seventh, only for Freeman to hit into an inning-ending double play. The Dodgers left two more on in the eighth inning.
In eight of Yamamoto’s 13 starts this season, the Dodgers have scored zero or run one while he’s been in the game.
The dam eventually broke on the Dodgers when Ben Casparius attempted to make a late throw to first base after a comebacker deflected off his glove. Casparius’ throw to first base was wide and pulled Freeman toward right field, which was enough of a difference for Masyn Winn to score on the infield single.
Fortune did swing in L.A.’s favor in the ninth when Ohtani reached on an infield single that hit off second base. He later scored the tying run on a strikeout-wild pitch.
That was all for naught, however, as Nolan Gorman’s ground-rule double to lead off the ninth wound up setting the table for Nolan Arenado’s walk-off single after Casparius’ throwing error to first base on a sacrifice bunt.
Dodgers’ hitting woes
The Dodgers have been the best hitting team with runners in scoring position this season, but the first two games against the Cardinals produced completely opposite results.
On Friday, the Dodgers were shut out despite tallying three hits. Since 2016, there had been 12,282 instances of a team having at least 10 hits and three extra-base hits in a single game, including both the regular season and playoffs.
The Dodgers became the only one from those 12,282 cases to get shut out.
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