Dodgers’ funk continues as slumping offense, pitching both falter in loss to Giants

There was blame to go around for the Dodgers on Monday night.

In a 9-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants, their slumping offense remained in a funk.

But this time, in what was the team’s 13th loss in 22 games, the pitching staff didn’t offer much support either, with Roki Sasaki grinding through another start and a typically stout bullpen suffering a late-game collapse.

The decisive sequence came in the seventh inning, when the Giants broke open a tied game with three runs against Alex Vesia –– who entered the night having previously allowed just two all season.

He yielded three-straight one-out hits, then walked Rafael Devers in a full-count to plate the go-ahead run.

Will Klein replaced him on the mound trying to clean up the mess. Instead, he hung a two-strike, two-out sweeper to Willy Adames, who lined a two-run single to right to break the game open.

The sequence represented a rare meltdown from the Dodgers’ relief corps, which began the day with the fourth-best ERA in the majors.

But, given the dreadful recent form of the Dodgers’ struggling lineup, it was more than enough to put the game out of reach –– even on a night Mookie Betts returned from a strained oblique and went 1-for-5. 

Up until the seventh, Monday had been a back-and-forth affair.

The Giants (17-24) scored first on a solo homer from Devers in the second inning, with the San Francisco slugger getting a hanging splitter at the end of an eight-pitch at-bat against Sasaki.

The Dodgers (24-17) answered back in the bottom of the fourth, manufacturing a couple runs from a bases-loaded, no-out opportunity.

The Giants retook the lead in the sixth, when the Dodgers stuck with Sasaki a little too long at the end of his five-plus-inning, three-run start. After escaping his own bases-loaded jam in the third, then retiring eight batters in a row with improved fastball command, Sasaki gave up three-straight hits to begin the sixth, including a two-run double Heliot Ramos pulled down the line.

That 3-2 advantage didn’t last long. In the bottom of the sixth, Max Muncy belted a leadoff home run, going the other way for his team-leading 11th long ball of the year.

However, the Giants would ultimately surge back in front again.

And once they did, the Dodgers couldn’t muster any more answers.

What it means

The Dodgers have repeatedly insisted their recent slide is something every team endures in a 162-game season.

Every time they suffer another result like Monday’s, however, that argument becomes tougher to keep making. Slowly but surely, bigger concerns continue to arise.

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The biggest one right now remains the impotence of their offense. Though they racked up 10 hits Monday, only three were extra-base knocks. And amid their lack of slug, they haven’t been good situationally, either, going just 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position in this latest loss.

Add it all up, and the Dodgers have now scored three runs or fewer in 9 of their last 12 games –– eight of which have been losses.

To make matters worse: The team is now back in second place in the National League West, trailing the Padres by half a game.

Who’s hot

For the first time in a while, Teoscar Hernández.

Entering the night, the veteran slugger was hitting just .196 over his previous 26 games. He hadn’t recorded an extra-base knock since April 21. 

Because of that, manager Dave Roberts dropped him to the No. 8 spot in the batting order, trying to shake things up for the two-time All-Star.

Then, right on cue, Hernández responded, going 2-for-3 with a third-inning double, plus an impressive sliding catch in left field on the first pitch of the game.

Who’s not

Shohei Ohtani … still.

Despite taking another round of pregame batting practice on the field (already his third time doing so this year), the slugger remained ice cold on Monday, going 0-for-5 to extend a recent 4-for-38 slump over his last 11 games.

Two of Ohtani’s outs came in situational opportunities, grounding out to second in both the third and sixth innings with a runner at second.

Those swings continued his problem of pulling the ball on the ground –– a key reason he has just one home run in his last 107 plate appearances.

On the season, Ohtani’s batting average is now down to .233 and his OPS to .767, his worst marks this late into a season since 2022.

Up next

The Dodgers and Giants continue this four-game series on Tuesday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-2, 3.09) will face right-hander Adrian Houser (0-4, 6.19 ERA) on the mound.