Dodgers end first half with dud, playing sloppy again in sweep to Dbacks

Dave Roberts had only one real request for his team in their first-half finale on Sunday.

Play. Clean. Baseball.

Once again, it was too tall an ask.

In a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks that sent the team into the All-Star break on an unsatisfying (and unsatisfactory) note, the Dodgers continued their puzzlingly poor run of play over the last week.

Once again, there were errors on defense, with a dropped ball by Andy Pages in the fifth and a bad throw from Max Muncy in the sixth directly leading to unearned runs that helped Arizona erase an early 3-0 deficit.

Also, again, there was sloppy pitching and opportunistic offense, with the Dodgers managing just three hits at the plate while watching their pitching staff succumb to walks, balks and poorly-timed mistakes.

As a result, the club lost its fourth game out of the last five, dropped three in a row for the first time in exactly two months and suffered its first series sweep of the year.

Most of it, in hindsight, felt so self-inflicted.

All of it, undoubtedly, served as sources of frustration.

Sunday started well enough for the Dodgers. Shohei Ohtani hit the first pitch of the day out to center for a leadoff home run, then sparked another rally in the third with a leadoff double that eventually set Tommy Edman up for a two-run single.

After that, however, the Dodgers wouldn’t record another hit.

And on the other side of the ball, they opened one door after another to let the Dbacks back into the game.

Following back-to-back doubles off Emmet Sheehan in the fifth, Pages dropped a relatively routine fly ball that led to another score. In the sixth, a leadoff walk from Sheehan and a passed ball from backup catcher Eliezer Alfonzo created another Dbacks threat.

With runners on the corners later in the inning, Muncy got a ground ball at third but hit Geraldo Perdomo in the back while trying to throw home, allowing Perdomo to score the tying run and Ildemaro Vargas to give Arizona the lead with an RBI single in the following at-bat.

In the ninth, Arizona added insurance when Tim Tawa took Evan Phillips deep.

It was that kind of day for the Dodgers, in what has been their sloppiest week of the season.

What it means

Going back to Tuesday’s loss to the Colorado Rockies, when a couple late errors effectively gave the game away, the Dodgers have put up ugly marks in most facets of the game.

Most glaring is their defense, which committed just 24 errors in their first 92 games but has stunningly combined for nine in the five games since (leading to eight total unearned runs in that span).

However, the pitching has also been spotty, highlighted by 19 walks, two hit batters, three wild pitches and two balks during this five-game rut.

And the offense hasn’t been bailing anyone out, going just 6-for-35 with runners in scoring position over that same span.

It hasn’t cost the Dodgers (61-36) the best first-half record in the majors. It’s also put only the slightest of dents into what is now an 11 ½ game lead in the National League West.

Still, Roberts was clearly irked even before Sunday’s dud. The search for cleaner baseball goes on, but will now have to wait until the season resumes next Friday on the East Coast.

Who’s hot

The biggest part of Ohtani’s day was slated to happen after Sunday’s game, with the two-way star scheduled to have his ailing knee drained and receive a pain-relieving injection.

But first, the four-time MVP made his latest mark at the plate, finishing his first half as a hitter strong by collecting his 22nd home run, recording his 58th RBI and hitting the All-Star break with a .293 average and .952 OPS.

Now, he’ll take the next couple days to let his knee rest –– which the Dodgers hope will allow him to resume full-time two-way duties when the schedule starts back up.

Who’s not

Hard to pick just one Dodger right now, but Muncy stands out because of his recent struggles on both sides of the ball.

The All-Star third baseman endured a quiet homestand at the plate, batting just .207 with two doubles, no homers and three RBIs. The bigger problems, however, were with the glove, where Muncy’s once-standout defensive season took a quick and ugly turn.

Sunday marked the third-straight game Muncy committed an error (he only had five errors all season previously). In that stretch, he has also missed a couple hard ground balls that were ruled for hits.

On multiple occasions, his frustration was evident.

Up next

With the exception of Ohtani, the Dodgers’ other five All-Stars (plus manager Dave Roberts and his coaching staff) will head to Philadelphia for this week’s All-Star festivities. The team will be back in action next Friday, when it begins a three-city road trip with a three-game set against the Yankees.