An off day follows off night for Dodgers

by Rowan Kavner

Yasiel Puig tipped his helmet toward center field to acknowledge the play from his former teammate and now-Oakland outfielder Trayce Thompson, who reached up and over the center field wall to rob what would’ve been a two-run home run to cut the deficit to three.

With that, the Dodgers’ last chance to make Wednesday night interesting fizzled out along with a two-game winning streak in a 16–6 loss to the Athletics.

“It didn’t start out well for us, obviously,” said manager Dave Roberts. “We didn’t play well. We got outplayed. You don’t see it very often.”

The Dodgers entered the night with the best ERA in the National League, having allowed one or no runs in six of their 10 games, which made Wednesday night a particularly peculiar one. Oakland scattered 21 hits on the night, marking the first time since July 25, 2015, the Dodgers allowed at least 20 hits in a game.

Alex Wood entered having allowed just three runs in 14 innings in his first two starts of the year, holding batters to a .146 average, but Oakland’s seven hits against him Wednesday were as many as he allowed in his first two starts combined.

Wood was also battling an illness that hit over the last road trip, but he said he was able to make it through his bullpen session and didn’t want to blame Wednesday’s results on how he felt.

“You can’t think about it like that,” Wood said. “I was good enough to go and just wasn’t very good from start to finish.”

Wood allowed seven runs in 3 2/3 innings, marking the first time he’s allowed that many runs in a game since July 21 last year and his first time as a Dodger allowing at least seven runs in four or fewer innings.

Things started to slip away for Wood and the Dodger defense in a fourth inning in which the Athletics plated five runs.

“The inning just unraveled pretty quickly there,” Roberts said. “Woody would never say it, but he was battling a sickness over the last few days and did the best he could with what he had, and it just didn’t work out. Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep those guys at bay. It’s one of those nights.”

Yasmani Grandal responded in the bottom half of the frame with a solo home run, becoming the first Dodger with multiple home runs on the season, but things continued to snowball against the Dodger bullpen, which allowed nine runs in the last four innings.

“You’re not on your game, it’s going to get exposed,” said Scott Alexander, who allowed two runs in an inning.

Grandal and Matt Kemp finished with three hits apiece, combining for half the Dodgers’ hits on the night. Kiké Hernández added his first home run of the season in the ninth inning.

The Dodgers have an off day Thursday before returning to division action, hosting the Diamondbacks in a three-game series.

“We have an off day tomorrow, and we’ve got to come back and try to win a baseball game,” Roberts said.

On The Farm

In Triple-A, it was the Oklahoma City Dodgers doing the offensive damage Wednesday in a 19–1 win. Andrew Toles went 4-for-6 with five RBI, while Tim Locastro finished a home run shy of the cycle and Walker Buehler allowed one run while striking out six in five innings.

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