Brewers 5, Dodgers 4: Errors prove costly as winning streak snapped

Chad Moriyama 08/14/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After an amazing defensive play in the 1st saved a potential big inning for the Dodgers, and after benefitting from Brewers miscues in the 1st to take the lead, the Dodgers then played very sloppy baseball over the rest of the game. Their mistakes were cashed in by the Brewers in a 5-4 loss that snapped their five-game winning streak.

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Things started well for the offense against Frankie Montas, as Shohei Ohtani reached on an error, Mookie Betts followed with a sharp single, and Freddie Freeman poked a single the other way to load the bases immediately. Bases loaded with nobody out? That strikes fear in the heart of any Dodger fan, but Teoscar Hernandez drew a walk to force a run in, Enrique Hernandez lifted a sacrifice fly to get another run, and Kevin Kiermaier doubled to make it 3-0.

Unfortunately, Walker Buehler got off to about as bad a start as possible. He walked the first three batters of the game to load the bases (though one should’ve been a strikeout), but was bailed out of major trouble by a Kiermaier throw on a tag play. And he followed with a strikeout to avoid any damage whatsoever.

Smooth.

Things didn’t go so well in the 2nd, as Jake Bauers started by homering off Buehler. A Nick Ahmed error and two outs meant the inning should’ve been over, but instead a Brice Turang triple scored another run, and an infield single by Jackson Chourio tied the game up at 3-3.

Buehler did manage to get a clean 3rd, but mess resumed in the 4th. A lead-off walk and steal was advanced to third on a groundout, and then scored on a Joey Ortiz grounder that resulted in an Enrique error to score a run.

That knocked Buehler out of the game as well since he was racking up the pitches. While the line doesn’t look terrible, it’s a bit misleading as he didn’t really look much better than before: 3.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R (1 ER), 4 BB, 3 K, 87 Pitches.

Anthony Banda took over in the 4th and got the final two outs of the frame in adventurous fashion. He actually gave up a double to start, but Ortiz was moving on the pitch and didn’t pick up the ball, so in the confusion he forgot to retouch second base for the second out of the inning, which allowed Banda to escape without damage.

Banda also got a strikeout to start the 5th, then Brent Honeywell Jr. entered for the final two outs, and got a clean 6th as well to keep the deficit to one run.

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On the other side, Dodgers offense was mostly quiet, as they stranded a walk and two steals by Ohtani in the 2nd (35-35, by the way) and a single and double in the 5th, but didn’t generate much else against Montas.

Their pen got a clean 6th, but back-to-back one-out singles from Mookie and Freddie cornered the runners in the 7th. A strikeout followed and Dave Roberts opted to pinch hit for one of his hottest hitters (Gavin Lux) with Miguel Rojas, and it paid off when Rojas singled to tie the game at 4-4.

Honeywell was still out there in the 7th, hitting a batter and getting an out on a sac bunt. Dave turned to Evan Phillips, who got weak contact, but Chourio still blooped a single to right. It wouldn’t have resulted in a run, but Mookie overran the ball in right to score the run and put the Brewers up 5-4.

Phillips rebounded to get the last two outs of the 7th, and Michael Grove got a clean 8th, but the damage was done.

The bats went down in order in the 8th and then in the 9th as well to end it.

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The team celebrations, explained.

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NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers71-50
Diamondbacks69-53 (2.5 GB)
Padres69-53 (2.5 GB)

The Dodgers will go for the series win way too early tomorrow at 8:10 AM HT/11:10 AM PT/2:10 PM ET. It’ll be Jack Flaherty facing off against Tobias Myers.

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