Anemic offense, shoddy defense and – yet again – erratic relief pitching leave fans grumbling and the Dodgers in a 3-2 World Series hole.
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
Rafu Sports Editor
If uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, then the world champs’ overnight flight to Toronto may have been anything but restful.
Before the mustard was on all the Dodger dogs Wednesday, L.A. fans were squirming in their seats and grumbling. Three pitches into Game 5 of the World Series, the Toronto Blue Jays had taken a 2-0 lead on back-to-back home runs, en route to a 6-1 drubbing of the Dodgers on their home field.
The batting woes the Dodgers displayed in their Game 4 loss continued on Wednesday, with 12 strikeouts against Toronto starter Trey Yesavage. Shohei Ohtani, who took the pitching loss in Game 4, went 0-for-4 in the Game 5 loss.
Left-hander Blake Snell started on the mound for L.A. and was ambushed immediately. Davis Schneider lofted Snell’s first pitch of the game over the left field wall, followed two pitches later by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s drive into the Dodger bullpen.
Snell mostly settled down from there, holding the Blue Jays to one more run into the seventh, but was lifted with two runners on base after uncorking a pair of wild pitches.
Edgardo Henriquez replaced Snell and was a strike away from retiring Guerrero and getting out of the inning, but threw a 100-mph pitch to the backstop, allowing another run to score.
That wild one left Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sighing in the dugout – and the crowd of 52,175 at Dodger Stadium groaning.
“Things get magnified in games like this, especially when you’re not swinging the bats,” Roberts said after the loss. “Blake pitched a heck of a ballgame, but giving up bases and not converting outs when you have a chance came back to bite us.”
Defense let the Dodgers down as well, notably an ill-advised dive for a ball that skipped past right-fielder Teoscar Hernandez and went for a triple and led to a Blue Jays run.
After the Game 5 loss, fans leaving the stadium were disappointed but still hopeful.
“This is my very first World Series experience, and I wasn’t going to miss it,” said Sonny Ly, who meant every word. He drove all the way from his home in Minnesota to attend Games 4 and 5, a trek that included his car breaking down in Colorado and then driving for 24 straight hours to L.A. “I think we all wanted to see a win tonight, but they still have a good chance.”
The series shifts to Toronto on Friday, where there’s certain to be a raucous home crowd clamoring for the Jays’ first championship since 1993.
“Guys have got to be better,” Roberts said, addressing his bullpen’s unsteadiness. “Everyone’s got to do their job. Right now we’re at elimination, and we’ve got to wipe the slate clean and find a way to win Game 6, then pick up the pieces and see where we’re at.”
The Dodgers are still the favorite for Game 6, due in no small part to having the postseason’s best pitcher on the mound. Yoshinobu Yamamoto has been all but unhittable, throwing complete games in each of his last two starts.
Asked about feeling the pressure in big games, Yamamoto said history wasn’t really in his thoughts.
“I’m just focusing on just to get this win in Game 6, and then just that’s probably the only thing in my mind right now,” he said before the team departed for Toronto late Wednesday.
After Wednesday’s Game 5 loss, fan Miki Kawamura, clad in her Dodgers yukata and cowboy hat, said she admired Ohtani’s sportsmanship after giving up a home run to Guerrero the previous day.
“He wasn’t too proud to admit how good a player Guerrero is,” she said. “Now we need to count on Yamamoto.”
For Game 6 and a possible Game 7 in Toronto, Roberts said all options are on the table, including having Ohtani pitch in relief.
“You know, we’ll see how he comes in tomorrow,” Roberts said Friday as the team worked out. “Right now, obviously, when you’re facing elimination, you’ve got to have those conversations. So whatever it takes for us to win tomorrow. And obviously Yamamoto’s going, and then we’re going to do whatever we can to put our best foot forward on the run prevention side and then on the creation side in scoring runs too.
“I think we would consider everything. And it’s more of just kind of doing whatever we can to get through tomorrow and then pick up the pieces and then see what’s the best way to attack a potential Game 7. So everything should be on the table and will be, for sure.”
Ohtani famously closed the final game of the 2023 World Baseball Classic for Japan by striking out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout for the final out.