Orioles 4, Dodgers 1: Offense silenced as Maeda struggles

The Orioles ended the Dodgers winning streak at five games tonight by a score of 4-1, knocking Kenta Maeda out of the game early and generally keeping the offense quiet. The Dodgers have still won seven of their last nine, so it’s not a big deal or anything, but the team had to like their chances going into the game.

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This was probably Maeda’s worst start, if not one of the worst, as he was in trouble in literally every inning. While he did give up his share of bloops, the Orioles hitters never looked uncomfortable against him. Maeda lasted just four innings while throwing a whopping 88 pitches, giving up four runs on seven hits and three walks.

He was saved from worse damage by this Trayce Thompson catch…

…and Yasiel Puig also turned a single into a fielder’s choice after he threw a guy out at second from right field.

Unfortunately, no amount of defense was gonna stop this absolute bomb from Manny Machado.

So yeah.

Not that it necessarily mattered a ton, because the Dodgers just got five hits and two walks all night long. Adrian Gonzalez drove in Corey Seager in the first inning, but that was the team’s only run, as they were shutdown the rest of the way.

Also, the bullpen was tasked against with getting more than half the game, and Pedro Baez, Louis Coleman, Luis Avilan, and Chris Hatcher got five scoreless innings. At some point, due to fatigue if no other reason, the bullpen is going to relent and people are going to whine, but seriously they are doing amazing since like May.

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With the loss, the Dodgers fall to 48-38 overall and 27-16 at home. Fortunately, the Dodgers probably won’t lose a game in the NL West because the Giants are losing 7-3 in the ninth inning, but as of now they trail by 5.5 games. Also, they still lead the race for home-field advantage in the NL Wild Card game by 1.5 and are still clear 3 games in the NL Wild Card chase itself.

The rubber match of the series will be tomorrow afternoon at 9:10 AM HST/12:10 PM PST/3:10 PM EST, and it’ll be the newly acquired and totally not meant to replace Clayton Kershaw but sorta Bud Norris against Kevin Gausman.