HOUSTON — Math is hard.
The Dodgers keep subtracting. A lineup that has been without Max Muncy since May 16 and Mookie Betts since June 17 lost Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor earlier this week and got even shorter on Friday when Freddie Freeman left the team to be with his family during his son’s illness.
Those left behind didn’t offer much resistance to Houston Astros starter Framber Valdez on Friday night. He held them to four hits and struck out 10 while taking a shutout into the seventh inning as the Astros beat the Dodgers, 5-0, in the opener of their three-game weekend series at Minute Maid Park.
Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a double, hustling into second base even though center fielder Jake Meyers cut the ball off in left-center field.
The next 16 Dodgers went down in order against Valdez, half of them on strikeouts (including six in a row at one point).
Gavin Lux ended the string with a one-out single in the sixth inning and Valdez loaded the bases by walking Ohtani and Will Smith. But he struck out Teoscar Hernandez and got Andy Pages to fly out to end the threat.
Valdez left with runners at the corners and one out in the seventh. Nick Ahmed struck out against Astros reliever Bryan Abreu and the Dodgers had their only run taken away on a replay review.
Bregman handled Lux’s ground ball near second base, but Kiké Hernandez rounded the base too far and Bregman tagged him out to end the inning. It was first ruled that Miguel Vargas had scored from third before the out was recorded. But even that small pleasure was taken away from the Dodgers when the Astros challenged the play and a review ruled Vargas didn’t make it home in time.
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If the results from a depleted Dodgers lineup are to be expected, Gavin Stone’s regression in July is troubling given his season-long reliability in a rotation that has had its own drainage.
Stone gave up nine hits in his six innings, including home runs to Alex Bregman (a solo homer in the third) and Jon Singleton (a two-run homer in the fourth).
Stone ended June with a complete-game shutout of the White Sox and a legitimate case for inclusion on the National League All-Star team with a 9-2 record and 2.73 ERA. Hitters had batted .227 with six home runs in 15 starts against Stone, who went at least five innings in 13 of those starts, seven or more five times.
July has been a different story for Stone. He has a 6.27 ERA in four starts this month and batters are hitting .369 against him with five home runs in just 18⅔ innings.
The Dodgers struck out 15 times in all.
More to come on this story.