DETROIT — The stakes, at this point, are obvious. The margin for the Los Angeles Dodgers as they limp into the All-Star break is paper-thin. Their pitching staff is worn. Their offense has been shallow. Each mistake has mattered all that much more.
“It feels like we have to play perfect baseball,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And that’s not the way it should be for us to win baseball games.”
Rather than perfection, the Dodgers have teetered towards disaster. Their second spectacular ninth-inning implosion in as many afternoons to the Detroit Tigers capped a miserable stretch for the club boasting baseball’s second-largest payroll, one that has left a sour note after an offseason filled with spending.
The rush of doling out more than a billion dollars in contracts still led to this afternoon in July, where the Dodgers got a good start from a journeyman claimed off waivers, managed a bullpen game and managed to still stand three outs from escaping with a series victory.
They ran out of bodies. They collapsed. Yohan Ramírez, pitching a second inning while making his third appearance in as many days, could not complete the six-out save, flubbing consecutive bunt attempts and throwing the ball away to allow the Tigers to walk it off with a 4-3 victory.
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— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) July 14, 2024
“It’s a tough one,” Roberts said, explaining a second consecutive disastrous finish. “And that’s kind of where we’re at.”
“We could’ve easily swept this series,” Freddie Freeman said. “It just doesn’t go that way. It’s baseball.”
The Dodgers had largely threaded the needle through the first eight innings. Brent Honeywell arrived in Detroit at 1:15 a.m. fresh off the Pittsburgh Pirates designating him for assignment, got the start and retired nine of the 10 batters he faced. A three-run first inning gave the Dodgers a rare lead to build off of as Roberts parsed through the few pitching options he had available to get through the day. Closer Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen weren’t among them, due to recent usage. Veteran Daniel Hudson has been dealing with back soreness, which left him unavailable as well.
The Tigers put up runs in the fourth and sixth innings but the Dodgers still held a 3-2 lead going into the ninth. It wasn’t enough, particularly after the Dodgers had loaded the bases in the top of the ninth and came away empty to make it eight consecutive zeroes after their first-inning outburst.
Despite having Alex Vesia warming as the ninth began (he would have had the platoon advantage over Tigers infielder Zach McKinstry, who was set to lead off the inning), Roberts opted to leave Ramírez in the game for a second inning of work. Few relievers in the bullpen had logged more innings of late, with Ramírez working for the fourth time in five days and third day in a row.
“The way Yohan was throwing the ball, I felt you’ve got to try to middle it, thread the needle, and give yourself a chance,” Roberts said.
Roberts didn’t want Vesia to work for the fourth time in five days, too — especially with Vesia’s emergence as one of the Dodgers’ best relievers. He warmed up the lefty anyway.
“In that situation, you’re trying to do everything you can not to pitch him,” Roberts said. “And you have no one else behind him.”
A 10th inning wouldn’t wind up mattering. McKinstry led off with a triple hooked into the right-field corner. Pinch-hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy punched a grounder through a drawn-in infield to tie the game. And Ramírez couldn’t get the Dodgers back to the dugout without further damage.
When Tigers rookie Ryan Vilade popped up his bunt attempt, Ramírez scurried off the mound. The ball clanked off his glove in fair territory and he did not record an out. When Wenceel Pérez bunted Ramírez’s next pitch back to the mound, Ramírez fielded it, stumbled, followed his momentum and fired a throw to third. The ball spiked into the dirt and past Kiké Hernández, allowing Malloy to score the winning run as Ramírez spiked his glove in frustration.
“If I had made a good throw, I had a chance at an out,” Ramírez said in Spanish. “That was my main focus in that situation, to get the out at third and try to get the double play with the other hitter. But it didn’t turn out the way I wanted.”
The Dodgers, who have lost 10 of their last 15 games, toed the line before tripping over it. In a spot where just about everything had to go right, just about everything went wrong for them in the ninth inning the last two games.
They’ve put themselves in this hole, and the wave of injuries that has overtaken this roster is having an effect. But the upcoming schedule should help; the All-Star break will at least allow some tired arms a breather, and could bring with it added health. The rest will be finding a way to increase the margin they have to work with.
“I think that part of it is personnel,” Roberts said. “And part of it is, you just got to capitalize when we get opportunities, and try to play perfect baseball. That’s the goal. But I do think the All-Star break is coming at the optimum time.”
(Photo of Zack McKinstry reacting to a triple as third baseman Kiké Hernández, right, walks away: Carlos Osorio / Associated Press)
