Dodgers bullpen blows another game in loss to Diamondbacks

The Dodgers bullpen continued its nightmare finish to the season, blowing a 4-0 lead over the final three innings in a loss to the Diamondbacks on Tuesday night at Chase Field in Phoenix, wasting incredible games by Shohei Ohtani on the mound and Teoscar Hernández at the plate.

The loss dropped the Dodgers’ lead over the Padres to 1 1/2 games in the National League West, and kept the magic number at three for Los Angeles to clinch the division. But right now the magic number is anything that doesn’t make the bullpen phone ring.

With the Dodgers up four runs after the sixth inning, Arizona got to work right away against the weakest link in the Dodgers chain, first scoring a run with a single and double against Jack Dreyer, who got the first two outs of the seventh inning. In came Edgardo Henriquez, who promptly allowed a two-run home run to pinch-hitter Adrian Del Castillo to make it a one-run game.

Alex Vesia, the Dodgers’ best reliever, threw only seven of his 17 pitches for strikes and walked a pair in the eighth inning. But he was bailed out by catcher Ben Rortvedt throwing out his counterpart, D-backs catcher Gabriel Moreno trying to steal second base behind Corbin Carroll taking third base. That out neutered the rally, and Vesia escaped with a strikeout to Blaze Alexander to strand Carroll, who represented the tying run.

Tanner Scott, who went through his own travails for several weeks, had four consecutive scoreless appearances heading into Tuesday. He got two strikes on Ildemaro Vargas before hitting him with a slider to open the ninth, followed by a four-pitch walk to Tim Tawa, who was trying to lay down a bunt.

James McCann was able to get a sacrifice bunt down, doing so with two strikeouts to put a pair of runners in scoring position with one out. Jorge Barrosa, who nearly got a squeeze bunt down that trickled just foul in front of the plate, instead got the tying run home with a sacrifice fly. Geraldo Perdomo singled home the game-winner, with the last seven Dodgers losses charged to relievers, with a pair of Scott defeats sandwiching Blake Treinen’s five losses.

Stretching out

Ohtani’s return from September 2023 elbow surgery has been very methodical, including a deliberately gradual build up since he returned to pitching in major league games again in June. He was previously capped at five innings, though manager Dave Roberts said at multiple times in the last week-plus that Ohtani might be given a little more rope while pitching.

That came to fruition on Tuesday thanks to eight strikeouts and no walks in his six scoreless innings, his longest start since August 9, 2023, while with the Angels. Ohtani allowed only one run in 19 2/3 innings over his final four starts of the season, with 27 strikeouts.

The pitching portion of Ohtani’s season ends with a 2.87 ERA in 47 innings, with 62 strikeouts against only nine walks. His 28.2-percent strikeout-minus-walk rate is 10th-best among the 393 major league pitchers with at least 40 innings this season.

Ohtani also leads the National League in slugging percentage (.617), OPS (1.011), and wRC+ (171), with his 53 home runs one shy of the league lead. He’s also second with 108 walks, one of which came in the sixth inning against Brandon Pfaadt.

Ohtani leads the majors with 85 extra-base hits as well, which led to a call by Joe Davis on the SportsNet LA broadcast that summed up the multifaceted nature of the two-way superstar. Carroll, who singled off Ohtani in the sixth inning, is second in the NL with 79 extra-base hits, but he struck out in his first two at-bats.

“So the only man who has more extra-base hits than Corbin Carroll just struck him out,” Davis said.

Ohtani also scored the sixth inning for the major-league-leading 142nd time this season, one shy of the modern Dodgers record.

Neither team on Tuesday saw a runner in scoring position until the sixth inning, unless you count the batter’s box, from where Hernández hit a solo home run in the second inning to open the scoring.

In the sixth inning, Mookie Betts walked after Ohtani, and Hernández cashed them both in with his first triple of the season.

Rortvedt even got in on the act with a solo home run in the seventh inning, his first home run with the Dodgers, which extended the lead to 4-0 before the bullpen threw a single pitch.

Then the horror film began.

Tuesday particulars

Home runs: Teoscar Hernández (25), Ben Rortvedt (1); Adrian Del Castillo (4)

WP — Ryan Thompson (3-2): 1 IP, zeroes

LP — Tanner Scott (1-4): 2/3 IP, 1 hit, 2 runs, 1 walk

Up next

The Dodgers get back on the beam against the Diamondbacks on Wednesday (6:40 p.m., SportsNet LA). Maybe they can ask Blake Snell to go nine innings this time out. Ryne Nelson toes the rubber for Arizona.