Once brimming with life, the Dodgers’ historic quest has turned into a dried-out heap.
The three-peat is dying.
The three bogs are slowly and painfully squeezed out of their lives by a collection of Midwestern tough guys with no regard for fame or status.
Two games into the National League Championship Series, the three-peat was officially placed on life support Monday after the mighty Dodgers lost a second straight game to those little giants known as the Milwaukee Brewers.
Shohei Ohtani strikes out in sixth inning
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
This time the score was 7-4 after another devastating night at American Family Field, and now the Dodgers trail two games to none in a best-of-seven series that seems out of their control.
For a second consecutive match, their ace was eliminated. For a second consecutive game, their powerful attack ran out of steam.
For a second straight game, they looked like a group of faded, tired, aging stars who had fallen into a surprisingly deep pothole and didn’t know how to get out.
For the Dodgers to win this series and continue their journey to a third straight championship, they must beat the Brewers in four of the next five games, the last two of which would be played in Milwaukee.
This doesn’t seem likely. It doesn’t even seem possible.
Not once in their previous two title seasons have they been down two games to none, and they certainly don’t look equipped to survive it now.
Look how they lost on Monday. On second thought, don’t watch, because what you’ll see bears little resemblance to the swaggering, self-confident Dodgers of postseasons past.
They launched their ace of the month for October, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and he always saved them, didn’t he? Not this time. He couldn’t get out of the third inning, beaten by scattered madness and blistering swings.
They received runs on two errors from shaky Brewers starter Logan Henderson, and they always capitalized, didn’t they? Not this time. They couldn’t make the Brewers pay for their clumsiness, managing only three hits, as their superstar crisis continued to deepen, with Will Smith and Shohei Ohtani becoming absolute offensive liabilities.
Even with all that, they sent Henderson packing after four innings and targeted a heavily used Brewers bullpen and surely they could muster the firepower to send at least one of those relievers running, right? Not this time, as four Brewers relievers set a postseason record by pitching five perfect innings.
The last two rounds are a sad microcosm of the previous seven.
Entering the eighth inning, the Dodgers trailed only 4-3 and found themselves at the top of their standings in what still could have been a marquee Dodgers comeback in October.
Mookie Betts hits in the eighth inning.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
Not so fast.
Facing Abner Uribe, Mookie Betts struck out. Facing Aaron Ashby, Freddie Freeman struck out and Teoscar Hernández was eliminated. Yeah, with maybe their season on the line, they couldn’t even get the ball out of the infield.
The Brewers, of course, sealed the deal with two runs on three singles in the bottom of the eighth, and the Dodgers meekly went 1-2-3 in the ninth.
It was surely very painful for Dodgers fans to witness the final out, a strikeout of… yes, last season’s World Series hero, Miguel Rojas.
The trio is dying and it’s almost unbearable to watch.
After beating their two aces in Milwaukee, the Dodgers will return home with Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow starting in Games 3 and 4, respectively.
In any other scenario, both pitchers are also aces and the Dodgers would have a huge advantage. But neither pitcher looks great in the postseason, and both will pitch while carrying the weight of a stressed-out Dodgers Nation.
“Yeah, it’s definitely a challenge,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think if you look at Game 3, I like where we are, in the void, who’s pitching, where our bullpen is, being at home. Then you have to go from there.”
Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Game 2 was that the Dodgers led…then lost the lead…then led…then lost the lead…then led…then lost the lead.
The Brewers’ final tying hit came on William Contreras’ fifth-inning home run off Kris Bubic, who has struggled in this postseason and perhaps shouldn’t have been in the game. The Brewers’ final go-ahead run came in the sixth on Contreras’ bases-loaded single after Brice Turang was surprisingly intentionally walked in front of him.
But none of those plate appearances were the most important of the game. The key moment that actually scored no runs was Jake Bauers’ 12-pitch walk in the third inning.
That loaded the bases, and Christian Yelich then greeted an exhausted Yamamoto with a two-run single.
“Yeah, we got to a certain point where it was straight competition mode, kind of like a blackout, just a little bit in the flow, a little bit competing,” Bauers said. “It was fun. It was a fun fight. I knew it was a time where the guys needed something, the team needed something.”
It’s funny, but that’s the kind of thing Dodgers hitters used to say, back when they were confident and full of life.
But Smith is one for 23, and Ohtani is three for 19, and the Dodgers have only one extra base hit against the Brewers, and no one says anything about the fun of competing.
In fact, things are so bad that Roberts appeared to call out Smith for not using the ABS challenge early in the rounds against Turang. Both times the strikes were called balls, and Turang took advantage of the missed calls to double, walk and score twice.
Yamamoto also seemed annoyed that his catcher might let his batting problems affect his work behind the plate.
“Obviously in that spot, Will didn’t feel like it was a strike, but obviously if you look back, it’s a called third strike, he doesn’t double, and that changes the out,” Roberts said of Turang’s first inning at-bat.
Roberts still has hope. But he’s not looking beyond Game 3.
“To the extent that we can do it, absolutely, but it’s just you want to get first,” he said.
Dodger Stadium will be filled with fans in what could be a celebration. Or a vigil.
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