ST. LOUIS — Roki Sasaki might’ve finally turned a corner from his recent struggles Saturday night.
Too bad the Dodgers ’ offense took too long to do the same.
Despite a season-best six-inning, three-run start from Sasaki, the Dodgers remained mired in their recently maddening slump during a 3-2 loss to the Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
In their latest sign of futility, they endured eight shutout innings that included as many hits as double plays (four each). Then, despite some good batted-ball luck that keyed a last-gasp, two-run rally in the ninth, they fittingly ended the game by stranding the tying and go-ahead runners on base.
“Just comes down to, we didn’t score enough tonight,” manager Dave Roberts said.
Indeed, Saturday followed what has become an uncomfortably common script for the Dodgers (20-13) in recent days.
They couldn’t generate power, failing to hit a home run for a fifth straight game (the longest drought for the club since 2015). They couldn’t take advantage of situational opportunities, either, going hitless with runners in scoring position until their short-lived comeback attempt in the top of the ninth.
That inning was keyed by three two-out singles that all deflected off the glove of a Cardinals fielder. Andy Pages then snuck a seeing-eye grounder through the infield to cut the deficit to one.
Alas, Dalton Rushing struck out as a pinch-hitter to end the game and send the Dodgers to a fourth straight defeat.
They still somehow finished with six runners left on base, even when accounting for all the double plays they hit into.
In the first inning, Will Smith became the first victim on an inning-ending grounder that was turned by shortstop Masyn Winn . In the third, Alex Freeland got doubled off after an overly aggressive jump on a lineout to second from Shohei Ohtani . Another double play ended the fourth, when JJ Wetherholt made a spinning turn at second on a ground ball from Teoscar Hernández . Then in the fifth, Hyeseong Kim couldn’t leg out a tapper back to the mound that was also turned for two.
“Once we started to build something, the double plays got us,” Roberts said. “They turned a couple really good ones. That certainly kills innings.”
It also meant that, when Sasaki stumbled in a three-run third inning, the 3-0 deficit might as well have felt like 30.
Even with some fortunate bounces at the end, the Dodgers fell to 5-9 in their last 14 games.
“There’s gonna be times where we’re not clicking,” Pages said through an interpreter afterward. “And this is one of those times right now.”
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Before Saturday’s game, Roberts joked he was an “eternal optimist” while declaring “today’s the day” the lineup would finally turn things around.
By the end of the night, such laughter was gone –– but the manager was still trying to put a spin on the team’s confounding recent struggles.
Roberts maintained that the club’s slide is “what every team is going to go through in baseball throughout the course of a season.” He downplayed the notion that it has revealed larger concerns in the offense, noting what he felt were higher quality at-bats throughout Saturday’s game.
“I thought the intentions were better on balls in the hitting zone,” he said, after noting pregame that his hitters seemed too “passive” on pitches they should attack.
“Yes, we hit into some double plays tonight. But I thought we took some good walks and, obviously, in the ninth inning, I thought we put together some good at-bats. I just think we need to be aggressive and take what the pitcher gives you. But every team goes through this through the course of the season.”
Sasaki … at least by the end of the night.
After drastically changing his signature splitter last week — abandoning his traditional forkball grip for a more prototypical splitter release — the right-hander used both variations of the pitch Saturday. It led to varying degrees of success.
Early on, Sasaki had his usual command problems, walking two batters and hitting another in his first two innings. Then in the third, the Cardinals finally got to him. Iván Herrera and Alec Burleson hit back-to-back doubles off his fastball. Jordan Walker got a hanging forkball in an 0-2 count that he belted for a two-run blast.
Just like that, it was 3-0 with no outs in the inning.
Another disastrous performance seemed to be at hand.
The one thing Sasaki has done well this season, however, is bounce back from such adversity. And over the rest of Saturday night, he provided his best example yet. The 24-year-old retired 12 of his final 13 batters to complete six innings for the first time this year. He also recorded only his second “quality start” (at least six innings, no more than three earned runs) in 14 career starting performances in the majors.
There’s still a long way to go in his development. And his ERA is still an unsightly 5.97.
But the trend line, for the first time this year, finally appears to be pointing up.
“I do think that there was a lot of growth,” Roberts said. “Each of his last handful of starts, he’s gotten better.”
Of the many, many hitters who don’t look right in the Dodgers’ lineup, no one’s slump has been more consequential than Ohtani’s.
After his ice-cold bat, the rest of the offense seemed to follow his lead.
On Saturday, the two-way star went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. In this series, he has now made an out in all nine trips to the plate. Overall, Ohtani hasn’t recorded a hit since Monday. And after it seemed like he was getting back on track last week, his season batting average is back down to .252 and his OPS is down to .835.
When Ohtani last spoke to reporters Tuesday, he framed his slow start as nothing out of the ordinary, saying it usually takes until May for him to typically find his swing. However, he also acknowledged that, when his hitting mechanics are off, his two-way duties can make it more difficult (or at least take longer) to get his swing synced back up.
Case in point: He has just one home run in his last 18 games and only two extra-base hits in his last 12.
The Dodgers will try to avoid getting swept for the first time this season Sunday, when Justin Wrobleski (4-0, 1.50 ERA) will face off against ex-Dodger Dustin May (3-2, 5.28 ERA).
