Mother’s Day weekend wasn’t overly kind to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the beginning of a six-game stint on the road. Despite a five-run output and a win on Saturday, there wasn’t much offense at all to speak about Friday’s opener and Sunday’s finale.
Obviously, former Dodger Yu Darvish was excellent in San Diego’s 4-0 victory on Sunday. It’s tough to say how the Dodgers would have fared with their prime lineup on the field, but Los Angeles just managed four hits on the afternoon, with two coming off the bat of shortstop Mookie Betts.
Darvish ended up going seven strong innings, allowing no runs on two hits and a walk while striking out seven. Los Angeles skipper Dave Roberts used one of his typical day-after-a-night-game lineups with names like Enrique Hernandez, Austin Barnes and Miguel Rojas all getting starting nods.
Darvish took a perfect game into the fifth inning before outfielder Andy Pages broke it up with a two-out walk.
Among the biggest news was superstar Shohei Ohtani missing the finale with what was reported as lower back tightness. Ohtani said he was dealing with some discomfort in Saturday’s game, eventually leading to Roberts pinch-hitting for him in the ninth inning. Despite the injury, Ohtani also said that he was available to pinch hit if the team needed him on Sunday.
“I personally feel that I can play, but just taking it easy,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “I started to feel the tightness grow a little bit more throughout the game. But when I woke up this morning, I actually felt pretty good.”
All indications show that Ohtani will be back in the lineup against the Giants in San Francisco in Monday’s opener.
Righty Walker Buehler didn’t fare so well for the Dodgers in his second start back from a nearly two-year absence from the mound. Buehler went just 3-1/3 innings in his first official loss of the year, allowing three earned runs on five hits and two walks. Two of those hits were back-to-back long balls in the bottom of the first inning by right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. and first baseman Jake Cronenworth.
Buehler threw a total of 77 pitches.
Lining up to start against the Giants in the San Francisco series are righthanders Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gavin Stone and Tyler Glasnow, respectively. The Giants are currently 13th in the National League with a 4.51 team ERA and 11th in the NL with a .673 team OPS.
After Sunday’s action, the Dodgers lead the Padres by 5-1/2 games in the NL West.
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