The Los Angeles Dodgers’ bullpen imploded as they blew a five-run lead and lost in the ninth, 7-6. Alex Bregman blasted a walk-off home run against Blake Treinen in the bottom of the ninth to secure the Astros’ win.
The Dodgers jumped out to an early lead when Cavan Biggio doubled home Kiké Hernández in the second inning to put them up 1-0. From there, they kept building on for the next few innings.
Shohei Ohtani doubled the score in the third inning with his 32nd homer of the season, which was an absolute blast that left the bat at 119 mph and traveled 443 feet.
In the fifth, Gavin Lux continued his hot hitting with an RBI single that drove in Nick Ahmed, who reached on a single to start the inning and moved into scoring position with a walk from Ohtani.
Teoscar Hernández then singled home Ohtani to make it a 4-0 game.
In the sixth, Ohtani drove in another run with a single, scoring Kiké Hernández after he and Biggio both drew a walk.
However, that five-run lead shrunk rapidly in the bottom half of the inning.
The Astros started the inning with two singles against Justin Wrobleski, who had pitched five shutout innings up to that point. Wrobleski ended up retiring the next two hitters, but with a group of right-handers coming up, the Dodgers went to the bullpen.
Evan Phillips was called upon and allowed four consecutive singles to cut the Dodgers lead to 5-4. While it was far from an ideal outing for Phillips, the Astros hurt him with weak contact, with three of the four hits under 82 mph and two of them under 70 mph.
Some better luck and defense would have helped out Phillips immensely, but it also continued his recent stretch of poor outings. That has created a major cause for conern ahead of the trade deadline, and the Dodgers have utilized a closer-by-committee approach now.
After Phillips failed to record an out, Anthony Banda entered and got the Dodgers out of the inning, and he went on to pitch a perfect seventh as well, striking out two.
For Wrobleski, he finished his day with 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on four hits with two strikeouts and one walk. An overall impressive day for the rookie.
The Dodgers extended their lead, 6-4, when Biggio blasted a home run in the eighth, but Daniel Hudson pitched the bottom of the inning and allowed two runs that tied the game at 6-6.
Freddie Freeman unlikely to return to Dodgers this series
Over the last week, one of Freeman’s three sons, Maximus, became ill with what doctors believe is transient synovitis. A virus that makes standing or walking a near impossible task.
The situation has developed in severity rather quickly, and the Dodgers, including manager Dave Roberts, became privy to just before Friday’s game. The All-Star ended up leaving the club ahead of their game, and on Saturday, he was placed on the family emergency list.
The Dodgers won’t press Freeman to return, and it isn’t likely he’ll return before the team wraps up their series against the Astros in Houston.
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