Dodgers’ bats flail again, putting season on brink

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers‘ bats, mostly quiet in October, were nearly silent in Game 5. If they don’t start making some noise in Game 6, their hopes for a title defense might be dashed.

The Dodgers flailed on offense for much of a 6-1 loss that put them on the brink with a 3-2 World Series deficit to the Toronto Blue Jays. After a historic 18-inning win over the Jays on Monday to grab a series lead, the Dodgers totaled just three runs in losses on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Slumps are never welcome but especially not when a team is so close to a second straight World Series crown.

«We’re not really doing much as an offense, and whenever we get a chance, we don’t capitalize,» the Dodgers’ Enrique Hernandez said. «We’re going through one of those funks right now. It is just really bad timing to have those in the World Series.»

If you remove the Dodgers’ offensive outburst in a wild-card romp over the Reds, Los Angeles has hit just .224 with a .372 slugging percentage in the postseason, well down from its regular-season numbers (.253 and .441). The Dodgers are hitting .201 against the Blue Jays over five games and just .200, without an extra-base hit, with runners in scoring position.

The nadir might have been Game 5, when the Dodgers were dominated by rookie Trey Yesavage for seven innings and for the game managed four hits and one walk while striking out 15 times. They had just one at-bat with a runner in scoring position.

«It’s been hard for us the last two days,» Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. «But we’ve been in this situation before.»

It was an overall lackluster performance for the defending champs in a pivotal game. The defense failed to convert a couple of key double-play opportunities early. The Blue Jays ambushed starter Blake Snell from the outset, homering twice in Snell’s first three pitches and becoming the first team to start a World Series game with back-to-back blasts. The Dodgers set a World Series record by uncorking four wild pitches, two from Snell and one each from relievers Edgardo Henriquez and Anthony Banda.

In other words, it’s not the kind of response you’d expect from a team that won the title a year ago and entered the series against Toronto 9-1 in the postseason.

«Everyone’s got to do their job,» Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. «We’re at elimination, and we’ve got to kind of wipe the slate clean and find a way to win Game 6. Pick up the pieces and see where we’re at.»

The Blue Jays have mostly dominated the stars of the L.A. lineup, save for Shohei Ohtani‘s big Game 3, when he homered twice and reached base nine times over the marathon contest. That continued Wednesday despite Roberts’ reshuffled lineup: The 1-through-4 hitters — Ohtani, Will Smith, Mookie Betts and Freeman — went a combined 1-for-15 with eight whiffs.

With the Blue Jays averaging nearly six runs a game in the series, something has to change, even with Yoshinobu Yamamoto going for L.A. in Game 6 on Friday in Toronto. Of course, the veteran Dodgers have seen it all and remain nowhere near panic mode. But they know they can’t put it all on Yamamoto’s shoulders.

«Yoshi is going to show up, he’s going to take that mound, and he’s going to do his thing,» Hernandez said. «It’s just we need to do a little better job putting together runs. Man, it seems like whenever we get traffic on, we found a way to get ourselves out of the traffic.»

One thought: Do what the Blue Jays are doing.

«It doesn’t feel great,» Roberts said. «You clearly see those guys finding ways to get hits, move the baseball forward. We’re not doing a good job of it.»

Last season, the Dodgers trailed the Padres 2-1 in the divisional round and rallied to win that series en route to a World Series win, something Freeman alluded to as a recent of example of the Dodgers meeting the challenge facing them now. But to win two, first you have to win one.

«There’s a fight in there,» Roberts said. «We’ve won two games in a row [before]. But again, it just comes down to one game. We have been in a lot of elimination games, and we found a way to get to the other side.»