After a profitable journey to Atlanta this previous weekend, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts had hoped his staff may hold the occasion going in opposition to the Colorado Rockies on Monday night time.
As a substitute, the Dodgers suffered certainly one of their most lackluster shows of the season in a 4-0 loss at Coors Discipline, getting shut out by Rockies starter Chad Kuhl in what felt just like the baseball equal of a hangover from the lengthy night time, and collection, earlier than.
“We didn’t actually deserve offensively to win that sport,” shortstop Trea Turner stated. “Our pitchers did a fairly good job of giving us an opportunity late. However offensively, we had been fairly dangerous. It occurs.”
The Dodgers (45-27) had began their present nine-game street journey with two profitable stops. They swept three video games in opposition to the Cincinnati Reds final week. Then they took two of three in opposition to the Braves over the weekend, profitable an 11-inning, practically 4½ hour marathon Sunday night time.
That sport, nevertheless, delayed the staff’s arrival to Denver for a three-game set with the Rockies (32-42). They didn’t land till near 3a.m. Monday. The Dodgers skipped batting follow later that afternoon to provide their gamers further relaxation.
“I feel you may most likely type of see everyone’s dragging just a little bit,” second baseman Gavin Lux stated.
“It’s not ultimate,” Roberts added. “However you continue to gotta go on the market and play.”
From the beginning, the Dodgers appeared low on vitality and absent of execution.
Their lineup flailed in opposition to Kuhl, who grew to become the primary pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout in opposition to the Dodgers since Steve Wright of the Boston Crimson Sox in 2016.
Relying totally on a sinker-slider mixture, the right-hander confronted the minimal variety of batters via six innings, gave up simply three hits general and did all of it on solely 102 pitches.
“We simply didn’t make any changes,” Roberts stated. “I felt we had a very good sport plan. We simply didn’t execute it first couple of occasions via.”
The Dodgers’ starter, former Rockie left-hander Tyler Anderson (8-1), surrendered runs within the first two innings earlier than giving up a two-run homer to José Iglesias within the sixth, elevating his ERA to three.23 on the season.
“Normally while you come to this ballpark, you are feeling a starter going six innings, giving up 4 runs, you continue to have an opportunity to win,” Roberts stated.
As a substitute, the Dodgers stayed to this point adrift, not even a failed supervisor’s problem within the second inning or a baserunning mistake within the fourth, when Lux bought doubled off attempting to advance to second on a fly ball, factored a lot into the ultimate end result.
“On the finish of the day,” Lux stated, “we bought to discover a option to compete just a little higher most likely.”
![Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner dives for a ground ball off the bat of Colorado Rockies' Connor Joe.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/a44575b/2147483647/strip/true/crop/4075x2594+0+0/resize/840x535!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F72%2F40ee980f4c238aaac5408e73d161%2Fdodgers-rockies-baseball-30914.jpg)
Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner dives for a floor ball off the bat of Colorado Rockies’ Connor Joe through the first inning on Monday in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Related Press)
The struggles on the plate had been most obvious for a Dodgers staff that’s nonetheless lacking Mookie Betts — whom Roberts stated is feeling higher from a rib fracture however nonetheless hasn’t resumed baseball exercise — and has struggled for a lot of June, a three-game outburst in opposition to the Reds’ porous pitching employees apart.
For the reason that begin of the Braves collection, the staff has scored simply 9 runs in its final 36 regulation innings.
Max Muncy, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger are nonetheless getting on a regular basis at-bats, regardless of all posting under league-average numbers.
And on nights when the highest of the order doesn’t ship — on Monday, the highest three of Turner, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith mixed to go one for 11 — the entire lineup tends to look misplaced.
Roberts doesn’t consider the Dodgers are cooling off, insisting that their strategy in Atlanta was higher than a few of the outcomes steered. He famous the Braves have one of many majors’ finest pitching staffs. His explanations for Monday’s flop had been much less convincing.
He gave credit score to Kuhl (5-5), a six-year veteran with a profession 4.38 ERA.
He accounted for the journey difficulties, although claimed they weren’t an excuse.
“Tonight was most likely a kind of nights we’d prefer to have again,” he stated.
All-Star invitation
Although the Dodgers didn’t win the Nationwide League pennant final 12 months, Roberts can be within the residence dugout subsequent month when the All-Star Sport involves Dodger Stadium, accepting a proposal from Braves supervisor Brian Snitker to hitch the NL teaching employees for the Midsummer Basic.
“It’s a large honor,” stated Roberts, who has beforehand managed the NL staff 3 times in his profession. “First one in Los Angeles in a few years and a long time. So to type of signify the Dodgers, be on his employees. It’s nice.”
Freeman honored
Freeman was awarded NL participant of the week honors after batting .440 with two residence runs and 11 RBIs in six video games final week, concluding with an emotional return to Atlanta over the weekend.
window.fbAsyncInit = operate() {
FB.init({ appId: ‘134435029966155’, xfbml: true,
model: ‘v12.0’
});
};
if (doc.getElementById(‘facebook-jssdk’) === null) {
const js = doc.createElement(‘script’);
js.id = ‘facebook-jssdk’;
js.src=”https://join.fb.internet/en_US/sdk.js”;
js.async = true;
js.setAttribute(‘crossorigin’, ‘nameless’)
window.setTimeout(operate () {
doc.head.appendChild(js);
}, 1500);
}
Source link