Facing a Texas-sized depression
HOUSTON — This is one bad hangover.
Two days after one of the most devastating losses in franchise history, the flattened Dodgers stayed down, stared up, and watched the Houston Astros continue to swagger their way through this World Series.
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it became Texas-sized bad, the Dodgers following their Game 2 collapse with a Game 3 meltdown Friday night in a 5-3 loss at Minute Maid Park that took the locals back to their dark side.
Remember that team that went 52-9 at one point this summer? Well, these were the guys that went 1-16.
Remember the team that rode Clayton Kershaw to a Series opening win? That team is now trailing two games to one and must rely on postseason newbie Alex Wood to pull them out
of the hole against Houston’s Charlie Morton in Game 3 here Saturday night.
“The Dodgers have a lot left in the tank, this series is far from over, we’re going to come back from this,’’ said Enrique Hernandez afterward in a second consecutive quiet clubhouse.
On Friday night, this was awfully ugly.
This was starting pitcher Yu Darvish never getting comfortable, never acting engaged, and, frankly, barely even showing up.
This was the defense recording a new statistic that could be called a triplebobble — they committed one throwing error, one fielding error, and blew one big throw.
This was an offense that collected only four hits while botching it on the bases.
“If we play normal Dodger baseball, we win that game,’’ said Cody Bellinger, who struck out four times and still doesn’t have a hit in this series. “It was maybe one of the not-great fundamental games that we played.’’
For the Astros, the win wasn’t all that great either, their victory marred by racial insult delivered by one of their stars.
After starting the surge against Darvish with a second-inning leadoff homer, the Cuban-born Yuli Gurriel sat in the dugout and openly mocked the Japanese Darvish, lifting the corners of his eyes and appearing to mouth the Spanish word, “Chinito’’ which, translated, means “Little Chinese.’’
Gurriel later apologized, and Darvish said he wasn’t angry, but it doesn’t matter. Regardless of Gurriel’s motivation or Darvish’s understanding, it came across as a racially offensive gesture and baseball needs to swiftly and strongly punish it. No institution in this country, particularly one that calls itself America’s national pastime, can stand idle while one of its members so openly mocks another for his heritage.
Gurriel should be suspended immediately, and there is recent precedent for such action. Earlier this season, Oakland’s Matt Joyce was suspended for two games for shouting an anti-gay slur at a fan in Anaheim, while Toronto’s Kevin Pillar was also suspended for an anti-gay slur directed toward Braves pitcher Jason Motte.
Said Gurriel: “In no moment did I intend to make an offensive gesture toward them. If he was offended, I ask for his forgiveness. That wasn’t my intention.’’
Said Darvish: “I saw it but, for me, it personally doesn’t bother me. But I’m sure the Astros have Asian fans and there are a lot of Asian people all over the world and to those people, from a humanistic perspective and as a baseball organization, I thought the Astros image might suffer as as result.’’
Rob Manfred, baseball commissioner, is scheduled to meet with Gurriel Saturday and could decide on possible discipline then. Here’s hoping he does the right thing and benches Gurriel immediately.
Meanwhile, the Dodger have to figure out how to stop rolling out these lateAugust messes in the middle of baseball’s biggest October stage. On Friday night it wasn’t supposed to be like this. In the wake of their late-inning collapse in a series-tying Game 2 on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium, it was presumed the resilient Dodgers would quickly recover.
They didn’t. They stayed flattened. It started with Darvish, who took the mound with a 2-0 record and 1.59 ERA in this postseason. But a day earlier, he gave a pregame press conference during which he seemed uncomfortable and uncertain.
Those who thought the moment might be too big for him, they were right. He allowed a double to George Springer on his fifth pitch of the game and never stopped reeling.
By the time Darvish was mercifully removed, he had allowed four runs and six hits in less than two full innings while inducing just one swing-and-miss amid his 49 pitches. The Astros batted .600 against him. It was the shortest outing of his five-year career.
“What happened, happened,’’ Darvish said. “It wasn’t like I was slacking, I was well prepared. They just got to me.’’
The four runs were all the Astros would need because the Dodgers could never find their legs. Or their bats. Or their arms.
First, the Dodgers had trouble at the plate, most noticeably after loading the bases with three consecutive walks by Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. to open the third. But Corey Seager grounded to first baseman Marwin Gonzalez, who started a nifty double play that scored a run but led to the early end of the inning.
Second, the Dodgers had problems on the bases. With one out in the fourth, Yasiel Puig hit what was appeared to a certain double past the outstretched glove of Alex Bregman. But as the ball rattled around in front of seats in shallow left field, Puig inexplicably stopped at first base before sprinting toward second, where he was thrown out by shortstop Carlos Correa.
Finally, the Dodgers had trouble in the field, with the Astros scoring their fifth run in the fifth inning when reliever Tony Watson threw wildly to first on a chopper by Evan Gattis and Josh Reddick scored from first base on the play after Puig’s throw was just off target.
On this night, that was just one of the many misses by the Dodgers, who need to have their memories erased. Their Game 2 collapse was a long time ago. They are facing a must-win Game 4. They need to get up and moving. They need to do it now.