Max Muncy couldn’t help but throw his hands up in disbelief.
In a frustrating loss for the Dodgers –– that continued a confounding slump from their hot-and-cold offense –– such was the defining image of the day and much of their form recently.
In the bottom of the sixth inning Sunday, with the Dodgers facing a four-run deficit to the Braves, Muncy thought he had done everything right in the most pivotal moment of the game.
Dodgers pitcher Justin Wrobleski lost his first game of the season Sunday. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
He’d worked a full count in a bases-loaded, two-out opportunity. He got the pitch he was looking for from Braves reliever Robert Suarez on a fastball up, but not out, of the strike zone. And even though he’s cooled off recently, he barreled up a vicious swing and launched a 107 mph rocket deep to right field.
For the briefest of moments, it seemed like a comeback was on.
Braves right fielder Eli White, however, had other ideas.
With a leaping effort that sent him crashing face-first into the wall and knocked him flat on his back along the warning track, White held on for a game-changing catch.
It was as close as the Dodgers would come in their 7-2 loss at Dodger Stadium.
And it left Muncy — who later hit a two-run homer that would prove too little, too late — stunned as he pulled up just past first base.
“Who do I gotta pay off at this point?” he thought to himself. “A lot of really good swings, just nothing to really show for it.”
Same thing goes for the entire team now, given its increasingly shaky play lately.
On Sunday, the Dodgers (24-16) fell behind by four runs in the second inning; the low point of a statistically anomalous 8 ⅔-inning, seven-run start from early-season breakout star Justin Wrobleski.
They managed just two hits yet still found a way to strand seven men on base, going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position in another inopportunistic performance from the lineup.
And in the end, they were simply less clinical than a Braves team that has the most wins in the majors, dropping a marquee series rubber match that leaves them 9-12 since April 18.
“Just kind of as a unit, I don’t think that we’re one piece right now,” manager Dave Roberts said. “It’s not from lack of effort. We’ve been in this funk for quite some time. Those guys, they pitched well. But still, that’s kind of where we’re at.”
The Braves’ Austin Riley (27) and his teammates won the series against the Dodgers, taking two of three. Getty Images
What it means
That, at least for now, the Dodgers aren’t baseball’s best team.
That honor probably instead belongs to the Braves (28-13), who made Wrobleski pay for his own defensive mistake in their back-breaking four-run second inning.
After giving up one run on three consecutive two-out singles (one of them via a bunt), Wrobleski got Sean Murphy to hit a comebacker to the mound that should’ve been turned for an inning-ending double play.
Alas, the left-hander misfired on his throw to second, which was too high for Alex Freeland to make the turn to first. After that, Wrobleski walked No. 9 hitter Jorge Mateo to load the bases, then gave up a three-run double to Mauricio Dubón.
Total frustration. Almost all of it self-inflicted.
“Just didn’t turn a double play,” Wrobleski said. “If I turn a double play … wouldn’t have been a bad outing.”
It didn’t help, of course, that the Dodgers failed to conjure any of their own two-out magic.
In the first inning, they left two runners stranded when Muncy struck out against Atlanta starter Bryce Elder to extinguish the threat. In the seventh, they watched Freeland and Shohei Ohtani (who continued his own personal struggles with a 0-for-4 day) come up empty with two aboard. And in between that, there was White’s robbery of Muncy, which came after Elder issued three consecutive two-out walks in the sixth.
“We really haven’t been able to put together innings,” Roberts said. “We did in that one inning, [and then] the right fielder makes a great play.”
The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-4 Sunday against the Braves. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Who’s hot
Wrobleski might not be any longer. But his strange statistical feats sure are.
A week after becoming the first Dodgers pitcher in a quarter-century to pitch six scoreless innings without a strikeout, the young left-hander nearly became the first pitcher in the club’s Los Angeles history to throw a nine-inning complete game with seven runs allowed.
That was only possible because, after the disastrous second inning, Wrobleski retired 16 batters in a row to keep the Dodgers within striking distance. He also set a season high for strikeouts with seven.
However, he faded late, giving up solo home runs to Drake Baldwin and Matt Olson in the eighth and ninth, respectively, before coming up one out shy of going the distance by plunking Mike Yastrzemski with his 100th pitch of the day.
After giving up six total runs in his first six outings this year, Wrobleski’s ERA nearly doubled to 2.42.
Who’s not
Quite simply, the Dodgers’ offense, which once again left Roberts struggling to offer an explanation.
“I really don’t have an answer,” he said, “outside of, it’s kind of the ebbs and flows of a long season.”
While that may be true, this ebb is starting to last a concerningly long time. After believing they’d turned a corner during a series win in Houston, the Dodgers managed just seven total runs in their three games against the Braves this weekend and have failed to score more than three runs in eight of their last 11 games.
“We had some guys hit some balls hard, and we had some guys hitting the ball soft,” Muncy said. “None of them seem to fall. It’s just kind of how the game goes sometimes.”
Up next
The Dodgers open a four-game series with the Giants on Monday. Roki Sasaki (1-3, 5.97 ERA) will face right-hander Trevor McDonald (1-0, 1.29 ERA).