For a team with championship aspirations, it’s truly incredible how badly the Dodgers have played at times over the last two months. They were swept away by the punchline Pirates on Thursday night, getting nothing off of Paul Skenes in a 5-3 loss at PNC Park.
Skenes struck out eight in his six scoreless innings. The one true scoring chance was a drive by Dalton Rushing off the wall in right field in the third inning, narrowly missing a home run but settled for a double. He was stranded when, after
a walk to Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts grounded out in the Dodgers’ only at-bat with a runner in scoring position against Skenes.
Blake Snell held serve for a while, allowing only a run through four innings. But three straight singles to open the fifth inning laid the groundwork for a four-run inning that put this game out of reach.
After scoring seven runs in Tuesday’s loss to the Pirates, the Dodgers did not score at all on Wednesday and didn’t score Thursday until a Mookie Betts home run in the ninth inning. That started a three-run rally in the ninth inning, but it was too little, too late.
Ben Rortvedt, who was called up earlier Thursday for catching help with Will Smith hurt, entered the game to catch the bottom of the eighth after Dalton Rushing caught the first seven innngs. But after the Dodgers scored three in the ninth, it was Rortvedt batting and not Rushing as the possible tying run. Rortvedt struck out against Colin Hoderman to end another Dodgers loss.
They’ve lost five of their last six games, with 16 total runs during that span.
Perhaps we could have seen this coming. After all, since the beginning of July the Dodgers are a meager 25-30, while the Pirates after this sweep are 28-27. That’s the company the Dodgers are keeping now, yet are still in first place in the NL West by two games.
Thursday particulars
Home run: Mookie Betts (15)
WP — Paul Skenes (10-9): 6 IP, 2 hits, 1 walk, 8 strikeouts
LP — Blake Snell (3-4): 5 IP, 9 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, 6 strikeouts
Sv — Colin Holderman (1): 2/3 IP, 1 strikeout
Up next
The Dodgers road trip moves on to face another high-performing last-place team, facing an Orioles team who did them a solid by sweeping the Padres in San Diego before returning home to Baltimore. Tyler Glasnow starts for the Dodgers on Friday night (4:05 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA) at Camden Yards, with former Dodgers draft pick Dean Kremer on the mound for the home team. If you have other plans, nobody would think less of you.
