LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers’ bats completed a principally quiet October with a virtually silent Recreation 5. If they do not begin making some noise in Recreation 6, hopes for a title protection is likely to be dashed.
The Dodgers flailed on offense for a lot of a 6-1 loss that put Los Angeles on the brink with a 3-2 World Sequence deficit to the Toronto Blue Jays. After an historic 18-inning win over the Jays on Monday to seize a collection lead, the Dodgers totaled simply three runs in losses on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Slumps are by no means welcome however particularly not when a crew is so near a second straight World Sequence crown.
“We’re probably not doing a lot as an offense, and at any time when we get an opportunity, we do not capitalize,” the Dodgers’ Enrique Hernandez mentioned. “We’re going by a kind of funks proper now. It’s simply actually dangerous timing to have these within the World Sequence.”
Should you take away the Dodgers’ offensive outburst in a wild-card romp over the Reds, Los Angeles has hit simply .224 with a .372 slugging share, nicely down from their regular-season numbers (.253 and .441). They’re hitting .201 in opposition to the Blue Jays over 5 video games, and simply .200 with out an extra-base hit with runners in scoring place.
The nadir may need been Recreation 5, when the Dodgers had been dominated by rookie Trey Yesavage for seven innings and for the sport managed 4 hits and one stroll whereas hanging out 15 occasions. They’d only one at-bat with a runner in scoring place.
“It has been onerous for us the final two days,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman mentioned. “However we have been on this scenario earlier than.”
It was an general lackluster efficiency for the defending champs in a pivotal recreation. The protection didn’t convert a few key double-play alternatives early. The Blue Jays ambushed starter Blake Snell from the outset, homering twice in Snell’s first three pitches and changing into the primary crew ever to start out a World Sequence recreation with back-to-back blasts. The Dodgers set a World Sequence document by uncorking 4 wild pitches, two from Snell and one every from relievers Edgardo Henriquez and Anthony Banda.
In different phrases, it is not the form of response you’d count on from a crew that gained the title a yr in the past and entered the collection in opposition to Toronto 9-1 within the postseason.
“Everybody’s bought to do their job,” Dodgers supervisor Roberts mentioned. “We’re at elimination, and we have got to form of wipe the slate clear and discover a technique to win Recreation 6. Choose up the items and see the place we’re at.”
The Blue Jays have principally dominated the celebrities of the L.A. lineup, save for Shohei Ohtani’s massive Recreation 3, when he homered twice and reached base 9 occasions over the marathon contest. That continued Wednesday regardless of Roberts’ reshuffled lineup: The 1-through-4 hitters — Ohtani, Will Smith, Mookie Betts and Freeman — went a mixed 1-for-15 with eight whiffs.
With the Blue Jays averaging almost six runs a recreation within the collection, one thing has to vary, even with Yoshinobu Yamamoto going for L.A. in Recreation 6 on Friday in Toronto. After all, the veteran Dodgers have seen all of it and stay nowhere close to panic mode. However they know they cannot put all of it on Yamamoto’s shoulders.
“Yoshi goes to indicate up, he’ll take that mound, and he’ll do his factor,” Hernandez mentioned. “It is simply we have to perform a little higher job placing collectively runs. Man, it looks like at any time when we get site visitors on, we discovered a technique to get ourselves out of the site visitors.”
One thought: Do what the Blue Jays are doing.
“It would not really feel nice,” Roberts mentioned. “You clearly see these guys discovering methods to get hits, transfer the baseball ahead. We’re not doing a superb job of it.”
Final season, the Dodgers trailed the Padres 2-1 within the divisional spherical and rallied to win that collection en path to a World Sequence win, one thing Freeman alluded to as a current of instance of the Dodgers assembly the problem dealing with them now. However to win two, first you need to win one.
“There is a battle in there,” Roberts mentioned. “We have gained two video games in a row [before]. However once more, it simply comes down to at least one recreation. We’ve got been in a variety of elimination video games, and we discovered a technique to get to the opposite facet.”