For a brief moment Tuesday night, smiles and laughter returned to the Dodgers dugout.
Mired in a month-long slump and without a home run in his last 13 games, Shohei Ohtani finally rediscovered his swing, belting a solo blast in the bottom of the third inning that –– for both himself, and his struggling team –– offered a temporary sigh of relief.
As Ohtani returned to the dugout, he smiled sheepishly as teammates greeted him with an exaggerated celebration. As he walked down the bench, starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto seemed to joke that Ohtani should have the ball retrieved, prompting Ohtani to chuckle and make a hand motion usually reserved for a player’s first career hit.
Good times.
They wouldn’t last.
Instead, the Dodgers once again faded late in an eventual 6-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, falling to 9-14 since April 18 behind another quiet night from the offense and second-straight shaky performance from the pitching staff.
Ohtani went 2-for-4 in the defeat, snapping out of his recent 4-for-38 slump with not only the third-inning homer but also a first-inning single that led to the night’s opening run.
Alas, it wouldn’t be enough to prevent the Dodgers (24-18) from a fourth-straight loss; not on a night Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed an MLB career-high three home runs in a 6 ⅓-inning, five-run clunker, and the rest of the Dodgers’ lineup combined for just two other knocks while stranding eight men on base.
The turning point came in the top of the fifth, when Yamamoto gave up back-to-back home runs to San Francisco’s Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Harrison Bader and (for the second time on the night) Eric Haase, giving the Giants a 3-2 lead.
Then, the Giants (18-24) broke the game open in the seventh, scoring three times after Blake Treinen inherited a two-on, one-out jam from Yamamoto; getting one on a squeeze bunt Freddie Freeman couldn’t bare-hand while crashing from first base, then two more on a double from Jung Hoo Lee.
Just like that, the joy was gone again for the Dodgers –– who left the bases loaded in the eighth to squander their best chance at a rally.
On another frustrating night, they suffered another dispiriting defeat.
The Dodgers’ recent slump first came into focus when they lost two of three in San Francisco last month.
This week, they were hoping to avenge that series, and get back on track against a Giants team that arrived in Los Angeles losers of nine of its last 12.
Instead, the Dodgers are now 1-4 against the Giants this season, and have scored a total of nine runs in the five games combined.
Tuesday was also the 10th time in the last 13 games that they failed to score more than three times.
Their four-game losing streak is now tied for their longest this season.
At long last, Ohtani.
His first hit of the night might not have been exactly what he was looking for, a ground-ball single that snuck through the right side of the infield.
His next one sure was, though, as he not only snapped his two-week home run drought (and hit just his second in a snap of 109 plate appearances) but did so by going the other way with a towering drive –– using the “big part of the field,” as manager Dave Roberts likes to say, in a way he has struggled to for most of this season.
Hard-hit balls to left-center, after all, are usually a sign that Ohtani is feeling good with his swing.
They had been in short supply during a 26-game slump entering Tuesday, in which he had hit just .200.
The slump had gotten so severe, Roberts said pregame that he was planning to keep Ohtani out of the lineup as a hitter the next two nights (he is still scheduled to pitch Wednesday).
Whether that remains the case after Tuesday remains to be seen.
But, for the first time in a while, Ohtani at least started to look like himself again.
Four starts into the season, Yamamoto seemed to be picking up where he left off in last year’s postseason, posting a 2.10 ERA with a sub-1.00 WHIP.
Since then, however, the Japanese right-hander has hit an unexpected skid.
While Tuesday marked the most runs he has allowed this season, it was also his fourth-straight outing giving up at least three.
As a result, his ERA has climbed to 3.60 on the season, and is at 5.18 over this recent stretch.
The Dodgers and Giants continue this four-game series on Wednesday night, when Ohtani (2-2, 0.97 ERA) will face Robbie Ray (3-4, 2.76 ERA).
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