The Los Angeles Dodgers entered their first rubber match of the year to wrap up their three-game set against the Cleveland Guardians and finish off the homestand.

After losing the opening game of the series, the Dodgers came back and took game two last night. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound for the finale, they had to feel optimistic heading into the game. However, they are still waiting for their offense to start producing consistently.

That never happened as the Dodgers dropped their first series of the season.

Dodgers 1 – Guardians 4: key takeaways

Dodgers offense yet to find success

For the first seven innings of the game, Andy Pages was the only Dodgers batter to reach base via a hit, and both were singles. Gavin Williams also struck them out 10 times in his seven innings of work, and at one point, he recorded six consecutive outs via the punch out.

Williams finished his outing by limiting the Dodgers to two hits and three walks over his seven innings, and the bullpen continued on his strong outing.

The Dodgers had their best chance to tie the game in the sixth inning after Pages singled, and Freeland walked to lead off the frame, but Shohei Ohtani grounded into a double play, ending the threat.

They had another chance to get back in the game during the eighth inning after a single from Hernández and a double from Pages, but Alex Freeland and Ohtani both struck out to end the inning.

They scored their lone run to break the shutout with two outs in the ninth on a solo home run from Freddie Freeman.

The Dodgers finished the game with just five hits, three of which came from Pages.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto turns in strong outing

Yamamoto was mostly his usual self in this one, but also didn’t have his best command. He still managed to pitch six innings, allowing two runs, but struck out only two, walked one, and allowed four hits.

The first run came after allowing a leadoff double in the third inning to Daniel Scheneemann, who promptly stole third and scored on a throwing error from Will Smith. That was followed by a solo home run from Gabriel Arias that gave the Guardians a 2-0 lead.

Outside of those two batters, Yamamoto was able to keep the Guardians at bay, but he threw too many pitches out of the zone, which led to a shorter outing for him.

Tanner Scott flashbacks

Tanner Scott had made three consecutive appearances without allowing a run, but an opposing hitter finally got to him. After entering with a runner on first, Scott allowed a two-run homer to José Ramírez.

To his credit, Ramírez is one of the best hitters in MLB, but the main concern is that Scott was beaten on an 0-2 fastball in the zone, which happened far too often last season and led to his poor year.

Scott has been doing everything correctly up until that point, so it’ll be important to see if that was an outlier or a trend.

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