Struggles mounting for Dodgers
Short start by Darvish, quiet bats top growing list of problems for L.A.
After winning 112 games combined in the regular and postseason, the 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers are on their heels and fighting to keep pace with an opponent that is outplaying them in the World Series.
Fresh off of wrenching away Game 2 from the Dodgers in Los Angeles, the Astros returned home to beat them 5-3 in Game 3 and take a 2-1 series lead.
The Dodgers, with a deep lineup and dominant pitching staff, had enjoyed a mostly placid pursuit of their first title in 29 years. They had spent 98 days in first place in the National League West, swept the Diamondbacks in the Division Series and lost one game before vanquishing the defending champion Cubs in the NL Championship Series.
Now they are chasing the Astros, with their survival dependent on winning one of the next two games at Minute Maid Park. The Astros have not lost at home this postseason.
The Dodgers had acquired four-time All-Star starter Yu Darvish at the trade deadline specifically to uplift them when under pressure. He could not complete six outs on Friday. A home run, a double, a walk, a single and another single to begin the second inning sank the Dodgers into a 4-0 hole.
Darvish recorded two more outs before Jose Altuve doubled and forced Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to go to the bullpen.
“He didn’t have it tonight,” Dodgers shortstop Cory Seager said of Darvish. “We’ve gotta pick him up. We missed that one big hit to get things going.”
Whereas the Dodgers expended six pitchers in order to finish a game they never led, Lance McCullers and Brad Peacock, who held the Dodgers hitless in his relief appearance, were all the Astros needed for nine innings. Those two right arms — belonging to starters who floated in and out of the Astros’ rotation this season — kept 12 opposing batters to four hits total and hitless in seven tries with runners in scoring position.
“We had a lot of chances to come back in that game, and we didn’t play good baseball,” Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger said. “If we play the kind of baseball we normally play, we come back.”
McCullers allowed one run but undid the worst of his jams. He loaded the bases on walks to begin the third inning. Seager, who had homered off Astros starter Justin Verlander in Game 2, approached with a chance to erase the deficit with one swing.
The infielders played Seager, a lefthanded hitter, deep and to pull the ball. McCullers started him off with a fastball that sailed above the zone. Then McCullers regained his command to induce a breakneck 3-6-1 double play, which McCullers narrowly completed with a well-placed toe-tap against the side of first base.
The Dodgers’ first four hitters in their lineup, which includes three National League All-Stars, mustered only one of those hits. Bellinger, the favorite to win NL Rookie of the Year, struck out four times to remain without a hit in the series.
“(McCullers) pitched to my aggressiveness,” Bellinger said. “I was out of whack today. You’ve got to give him credit. He spotted his curveballs where he wanted to.”
Bellinger conceded that he was unable to capitalize on the curveballs that McCullers hung.
“There was a few,” he said. “And when you’re not feeling too hot, you miss them.”
His team missed most of its chances to cut into the lead. The Astros scored once after blitzing Darvish. In the fifth, Dodgers reliever Tony Watson fielded a dribbler by Astros catcher Evan Gattis and fired an errant throw that bounced past first base. Watson’s error allowed Astros right fielder Josh Reddick to score from first.
“We didn’t play a very good game at all,” Seager said. “Threw some balls away. Kicked some balls around. That can’t happen.”