The Los Angeles Dodgers needed a comeback victory to defeat the Baltimore Orioles in the series opener, but they didn’t have the same magic in the second game of the series.
Instead, the Dodgers’ four-game winning streak came to an end, and they failed to reach the 50-win mark on Saturday night. Instead, they’ll have another chance to become the first MLB team to 50 wins on Sunday in the series rubber match.
Orioles 3, Dodgers 2: key takeaways
Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes loss
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was nearly perfect in his last outing, but did not come close to that same success this time.
The perfect game ended with a walk in the first inning, Yamamoto’s first time walking a batter since May 31 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Then the Orioles broke up the no-hitter with a leadoff single in the second inning.
Colton Cowser also singled with no outs to put runners at the corners, and the Orioles took a 1-0 lead on a force out at second base.
Yamamoto’s worse inning came in the fourth when he gave up consecutive singles to start the frame. He then allowed a one-out walk to load the bases, and with two outs, Blaze Alexander doubled home two runs off the glove off Tommy Edman at third base.
Yamamoto ended his night with six innings pitched, allowing three runs on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks.
The Orioles have also scored multiple runs in 22 consecutive games against the Dodgers now.
Dodgers’ shut down early, late rally falls short
Even with Shohei Ohtani back in the lineup after he was away from the team for one game, the Dodgers had almost no offensive success.
Trevor Rogers tossed seven shutout innings while allowing just one hit, striking out six and walking two. The Dodgers were also being no-hit until a bloop single from Tommy Edman in the fifth inning broke that up.
Their walks came in the first and seventh innings as the Dodgers failed to mount any rally to put pressure on Rogers.
Once Rogers was out of the game and the Orioles turned to the bullpen, the Dodgers still struggled, despite a late rally attempt. Edman singled to start the eighth inning, but the next three Dodgers hitters were retired.
The Dodgers finally got on the board with a solo homer from Ohtani against Andrew Kittredge.
After that, Freddie Freeman took a four-pitch walk and Mookie Betts singled to put two runners on base, including the tying run. With one out, Alex Freeland flied out for the second out of the inning.
Edman then hit a line drive to right field, and it should have been the final out of the inning, but it was dropped by Leody Taveras, allowing a run to score and putting the tying run at third base.
Kyle Tucker came to the plate with a chance to tie or win the game, but he struck out swinging to end the rally.
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