WASHINGTON — The defending champion Dodgers are nonetheless a machine, as they proved of their dominant 8-0 run to open the season. However as they’ve entered the loss column, they have not managed to reliably outhit some early season sloppiness.
Shohei Ohtani notched his second three-hit sport of the season and completed a double shy of the cycle, however the Dodgers dropped Monday’s collection opener towards the Nationals, 6-4, at Nationals Park.
Ohtani had two probabilities to get the two-bagger he was on the lookout for within the late innings, however he went down on strikes within the eighth and drew a stroll within the ninth.
“My method actually would not change,” Ohtani mentioned, by way of interpreter Will Ireton, of hitting with a cycle on the road. “It is to essentially attempt to get on base. That fourth at-bat, I ought to have no less than taken a hack and see what occurred.”
After Ohtani struck out trying within the eighth, his workforce continued to rally inside two runs, prompting the Nationals to name on their nearer, Kyle Finnegan, for the ultimate 5 outs of the ballgame. Finnegan was pitching for the third straight day, and regardless of permitting an inherited runner to attain within the eighth, managed to transform the save and seal the Dodgers’ third lack of the season.
“He’s a professional and he labored his at-bat,” Finnegan mentioned. “I used to be in a position to sneak again in there, 3-2. At that time, my mindset didn’t change. If I used to be going to get him out, it was as a result of he was going to chase one thing out of the zone, and he did his job and took ball 4.”
Ohtani had been within the midst of what solely he might contemplate a considerably pedestrian begin to the season. Coming into Monday, he was hitting 11-for-41 (.268), albeit with a .912 OPS.
“It is exhausting to form of say he was struggling, however tonight he was locked in,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “MacKenzie Gore is without doubt one of the actually good younger left-handed pitchers within the sport, and the at-bats Shohei took have been fairly distinctive. Even that final at-bat to earn a stroll vs. Finnegan and never attempt to chase a cycle speaks to being a workforce participant and passing the baton.”
It was Ohtani who tied the sport with a two-run homer, his fourth of the season, within the high of the third. Within the earlier half-inning, Los Angeles had gotten errors on back-to-back performs by Mookie Betts and Miguel Rojas that allowed Washington to stack a pair of unearned runs towards Dustin Could.
The error on Betts got here when he missed a ball on an in-between hop, and it had initially been dominated a single. Roberts known as it a “robust error,” however he in any other case did not deny that his workforce has not been taking part in its cleanest baseball of late.
“It simply looks like every night time, there’s some issues basically that we’re simply not taking part in clear baseball,” Roberts mentioned. “Giving groups further outs or giving up outs on the bases, or no matter it may be. However nonetheless, the battle, as we noticed tonight, continues to be there … and it known as for his or her nearer to pitch three in a row, do an up-down.”
As a result of L.A.’s three losses have come within the span of the previous 4 video games, the miscues have stood out. There was poor baserunning and sloppy protection, with out the large hit to make up for the imperfections.
Even whereas the Dodgers have been nonetheless off to an undefeated begin to their title protection, Roberts maintained that they nonetheless had loads of room for enchancment. The workforce wasn’t essentially taking part in that a lot better at that cut-off date, however Los Angeles was capable of finding extra methods to win on a night-to-night foundation in these early video games.
“I feel we’ve been a little bit sloppier on protection these previous couple video games,” third baseman Max Muncy mentioned. “I actually don’t assume we’ve even gotten near placing all of it collectively. Even with the beginning that we had, we nonetheless weren’t clicking on all cylinders. It’s April. Generally, it’s robust to do proper out of the gate. That’s why it’s a protracted season.”
