Shohei Ohtani’s newest residence run binge hasn’t been sufficient to spark the Los Angeles Dodgers out of a summer time malaise that is endangering their customary perch atop the NL West.
Ohtani homered in his third straight recreation Monday night time, hitting his forty second of the season within the eighth inning of the Dodgers’ 7-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
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The Dodgers trailed 7-0 when Ohtani linked off Shaun Anderson with one out, driving his fourth homer in 5 video games into the fitting area bleachers to tie Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead. Seattle’s Cal Raleigh leads the majors with 45 homers.
No. 42 for Shohei Ohtani 😤
He's homered in 3 straight video games! pic.twitter.com/IrN3wduI1q
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Ohtani additionally began a rally: Mookie Betts and Will Smith then singled earlier than Max Muncy introduced them residence along with his seventeenth homer, trimming the Dodgers’ deficit to 3 runs and provoking thunderous roars from the Dodgers followers comprising greater than half of the Angel Stadium crowd.
Shohei and Max yard. pic.twitter.com/xcqYXZIgFk
However the Dodgers received no nearer, with Connor Brogdon and longtime Dodgers nearer Kenley Jansen calmly wrapping up the sub-.500 Angels’ fifth consecutive win over their crosstown rivals.
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The loss shrunk the Dodgers’ lead over San Diego within the NL West to only one recreation — the smallest cushion since June 14.
“I imply, it’s a extremely unhealthy loss for us,” Muncy mentioned. “There’s not likely any manner of getting round that.”
Ohtani has a 10-game hitting streak in August, his longest of the season, and he has 4 homers amongst his 9 hits within the Dodgers’ final 5 video games. The 2-way famous person is the presumptive front-runner for his fourth MVP award.
Regardless of his heroics, the Dodgers are 10-12 for the reason that All-Star break.
With meager manufacturing throughout their lineup and inconsistent reduction pitching simply when their problematic rotation lastly began to click on, they’ve solely not often seemed just like the juggernaut franchise that has received two of the previous 5 World Sequence, 4 of the final eight NL pennants and 11 of the final 12 division crowns.
“It’s not going properly for us proper now,” Muncy mentioned. “We’ve received to discover a method to snap out of it. Nobody goes to really feel sorry for us. It’s on us to search out our manner out of it, and we are going to.”
A day after the Dodgers’ bullpen blew an eighth-inning lead in a 5-4 loss to Toronto, high starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto received raked by the Angels’ largely common lineup for six runs on six hits and 5 walks, making a gap the Dodgers could not escape. The Dodgers started the weekend with two strong performances towards the AL-leading Blue Jays, solely to fall again into one other rut.
“We’re all searching for some traction right here, and attempting to stack some wins,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “Hate to say that yesterday’s loss carried over to tonight. … You win yesterday, and you are feeling even higher about coming into at this time, however now you have a look at shedding two video games in a row. It’s baseball, and we’re good at resetting, coming again.”
Their loss in Anaheim ended a couple of minutes after the streaking Padres beat San Francisco to maneuver one recreation again of the defending champions.
Muncy mentioned he would not watch the standings, however most Dodgers are conscious of their largest rivals respiratory down their necks.
“There positively needs to be some urgency,” Roberts mentioned. “I do not suppose anybody is blind to the truth that the standings are the standings, and so it is received much more attention-grabbing. We have to go on the market and play good baseball, however I positively really feel our guys are beginning to really feel that urgency. It has been lengthy sufficient of middling baseball, so far as general workforce wins and losses.”
The rivalry is about to hit a fever pitch, too: The Padres and Dodgers are assembly in three-game sequence on every of the subsequent two weekends.
Dodgers followers are properly conscious that San Diego made a frenzied flurry of strikes on the commerce deadline, buying seven main leaguers whereas addressing each perceived want on their roster.
The Dodgers did virtually nothing, making solely secondary additions to their bullpen as a substitute of buying a difference-making place participant or one other beginning pitcher.
Ohtani performed his first six main league seasons in Anaheim, successful two MVP awards and a Rookie of the 12 months award whereas by no means enjoying on a successful workforce.
He’s scheduled to pitch at Angel Stadium on Wednesday night time for the primary time since he left for a $700 million contract with the Dodgers and promptly received the World Sequence.
Ohtani’s homer was the one centesimal of his profession on the Large A, making him simply the sixth main leaguer to hit that mark.
