CINCINNATI – With severe storms approaching, fans at Great American Ball Park were advised in the fourth inning Sunday to take cover in the concourse area.
After a one-hour, nine-minute rain delay, they returned to their seats. The Dodgers’ offense has gone missing far longer.
The Dodgers managed just five hits in a 4-1 loss Sunday as the Cincinnati Reds completed a three-game sweep of the weekend series.
The loss was the Dodgers’ fifth in a row, their longest losing streak since a six-game skid in early April 2019.
The Dodgers have been outscored 29-11 during this losing streak with six of their runs coming during Friday’s loss. They haven’t held a lead since mid-game Friday – and that was swamped by a six-run fifth inning from the Reds.
The five-game losing streak is just the nadir of a three-week slump. With Sunday’s shortened loss, the Dodgers are 8-9 in their last 17 games with the offense mainly responsible for the struggles.
Over that stretch, the Dodgers have averaged 3.47 runs per game. Sunday was the seventh time during the 17-game slide that they have been held to two runs or fewer.
As a team, they are batting .215 over the past 17 games. With runners in scoring position, they have gone 27 for 135 (.200) with runners in scoring position including a miserable 6 for 47 (.128) during this losing streak.
Nick Martinez has been a repeat offender against the Dodgers’ slumping lineup.
The Reds right-hander has pitched in the ‘bulk’ role during two bullpen games against the Dodgers recently. He has retired 27 of 30 batters faced over 9 ⅓ scoreless innings.
Martinez has a 5.45 ERA against every other team this season.
The Dodgers had just one baserunner in five innings against Martinez at Dodger Stadium last week (an infield single). Before the rains came Sunday, they had two. Andy Pages reached on an error in the second inning and was then erased in a double play. Teoscar Hernandez had a two-out double in the fourth inning. Pages followed with a strikeout.
Before the game, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the inconsistency of the Dodgers’ offense this season – they also slumped through a 2-6 homestand in April – has surprised him considering the amount of talent the Dodgers felt they had assembled in their lineup.
“It does (surprise me),” he said. “I think it’s a lack of consistency of approach. We’re trying to cover too many parts of the zone, in my opinion, and we’re missing the fastball. I think that’s the crux. When the fastball is belt high, we’re swinging and missing or fouling it off. That pitch should be moved forward. And then we’re chasing below.
“You can’t miss balls at the belt and chase below also. Bad combo. I think that collectively, that’s what we’re doing. That’s how I would sum up our offense when we’re not going well.”
The sixth through ninth spots in the Dodgers’ lineup went 1 for 14 in Saturday’s loss. Some of the names changed but the bottom five in the lineup went hitless in 15 at-bats in Sunday’s loss.
But only Mookie Betts (1 for 4 Sunday and 6 for 18 during the losing streak) has been immune to the offensive malaise.
Shohei Ohtani is 8 for 38 (.211) since he was hit in the left hamstring by a pickoff throw in the first game against the Reds last week and 5 for 21 during the losing streak — including a 113.5 mph rocket off the glove of Reds first baseman Spencer Steer to set up the Dodgers’ lone run in the ninth inning Sunday.
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Freddie Freeman is 3 for 17 during the losing streak but did drive in the Dodgers’ only run with a ninth-inning double following Ohtani’s single. More worrisome, though, he is 11 for his past 52 (.212).
Yoshinobu Yamamoto did not pitch during the four-game Dodgers-Red series in Los Angeles last weekend.
Getting their first look at the Japanese rookie, the Reds put runners on in each of the first two innings then broke through for four runs on an assortment of four singles, a walk and a stolen base.
Yamamoto threw 100 pitches (matching his season-high) to get through five innings and did not return after the rain delay.