{"id":658332,"date":"2026-04-02T07:53:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658332\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T07:53:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T07:53:23","slug":"dodgers-drop-series-to-guardians-after-lackluster-offensive-showing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/658332\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers drop series to Guardians after lackluster offensive showing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sure, it\u2019s very early. Maybe that\u2019s why all Dodgers\u2019 batters seem to be hitting is the snooze button \u2014 snoozing and, on Wednesday, losing 4-1<\/a> to the Cleveland Guardians.<\/p>\n

Only Andy Pages<\/a> has looked alert in the Dodgers\u2019 super-imposing lineup, which would have been shut out before a crowd of 45,556 at Dodger Stadium if not for Freddie Freeman<\/a>\u2019s two-out home run in the ninth inning.<\/p>\n

Before Freeman\u2019s 407-foot blast, Pages had the only two hits off Guardians starter Gavin Williams. Cleveland\u2019s 6-foot-6 right-hander had Dodgers hitters scuffling for seven innings, striking out 10 as the Guardians won for the second time in the three-game series.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the Dodgers only seriously threatened when reliever Shawn Armstrong was on the mound in the eighth inning and they got runners on second and third, as Pages doubled over Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a>, who had singled.<\/p>\n

But then Shohei Ohtani<\/a> struck out on three pitches to end the inning.<\/p>\n

A day off and a road trip are now just what Doc ordered: manager Dave Roberts suggested a day to reset and some hostile crowds in Washington and then Toronto, where the Dodgers won last season\u2019s epic, seven-game World Series against the Blue Jays<\/a>, could help get his club\u2019s juices flowing.<\/p>\n

Freeman, too, said he\u2019s confident the Dodgers will wake up soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur offense is inevitable,\u201d said Freeman, smiling as though amused by the puzzle baseball has delivered Dodgers hitters to start a season in which they\u2019re trying to three-peat as World Series champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, maybe tomorrow, with an off-day, the coldness will go away and we\u2019ll heat up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Despite struggling at the plate, the Dodgers are 4-2 to start the season, \u201cso that\u2019s a good thing,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n

And their pitchers have given up only 17 runs, with an ERA of 2.83 that ranks fourth best in baseball. \u201cWe\u2019re pitching well,\u201d Roberts added. \u201cSo that\u2019s a really good thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah,\u201d he acknowledged. \u201cIt\u2019s obviously a very talented lineup, and right now, it just seems like a lot of guys are in-between.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve struck out 44 times and walked 17. They\u2019ve scored only 23 runs \u2014 19th among MLB\u2019s 30 teams. And they\u2019ve consistently been plagued by slow starts, digging themselves a too-familiar hole again by falling behind 2-0 for the fifth time in six games.<\/p>\n

But this time, they couldn\u2019t conjure up clutch hits to help them climb out of it \u2014 and that included Ohtani, who is three for 18 with seven walks and no extra-base hits.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers <\/p>\n

Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the first inning Wednesday against the Guardians.<\/p>\n

(Ronaldo Bolanos \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

After telling reporters Tuesday night he felt his swing was \u201ca little off,\u201d Ohtani took a rare on-field batting practice Wednesday \u2014 just as he had before his epic three-home run game that he also pitched and struck out 10 to close out last season\u2019s NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers.<\/p>\n

Watching home runs fly through the fresh air didn\u2019t prove an effective remedy this time, though.<\/p>\n

After Ohtani\u2019s first-inning walk \u2014 which extended his overall on-base streak to 37 games \u2014 the Dodgers\u2019 sensational leadoff man went 0 for 3 at the plate, including being called out on a challenge that resulted in a double play in the sixth inning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a little surprised because he doesn\u2019t do that very often,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cI think he was looking for some feel, the flight of the baseball. Sometimes when he doesn\u2019t feel well, he likes to change up his routine and get on the field and see the flight. So, yeah, I was surprised.<\/p>\n

\u201c[And he] took a walk, but had a couple other tough at-bats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

That was the story of the game \u2014 and of the season so far for the Dodgers.<\/p>\n

The Guardians scored twice in the third inning on miscues by Yoshinobu Yamamoto and catcher Will Smith. Daniel Schneemann hit a leadoff double to right field, got a good jump, stole third base and then jogged home after Smith\u2019s errant throw wound up in left field. Yamamoto then let Gabriel Arias get hold of a curveball for a 407-foot home run to straightaway center field.<\/p>\n

But those were the only runs Cleveland scored against Yamamoto, whose start was historic because it made the Dodgers the first team in MLB history to start three consecutive Japanese-born pitchers. Yamamoto followed Roki Sasaki and Ohtani, who pitched Monday and Tuesday, respectively.<\/p>\n

And in six innings, Yamamoto gave up four hits, struck out two, walked a batter and hit Angel Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n

Yamamoto (1-1) didn\u2019t have his typical pinpoint command, but he did enough, Roberts said. \u201cHe gave us six innings, gave up two runs, so obviously gave us a chance to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

But yet again, Yamamoto didn\u2019t get help from his friends. Ranking in the bottom five in run support last season, the Dodgers couldn\u2019t drum up runs for their ace of aces, either.<\/p>\n

Williams, conversely, was pin-prick sharp, confounding the Dodgers (4-2) with the exception of Pages, the Dodgers\u2019 No. 8 hitter, who finished 3-3 to improve to nine for 21 on this young season.<\/p>\n

The Guardians (4-3) extended the lead to 4-0 in the eighth inning, when Jos\u00e9 Ram\u00edrez hit a two-run home run off Tanner Scott.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sure, it\u2019s very early. Maybe that\u2019s why all Dodgers\u2019 batters seem to be hitting is the snooze button…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[1384,5,39,34556,25635,14,538,3930,3816,1987,1165,4332,4333,20515,774,57,3224,4331,4,3354,1479,468,1535,279],"class_list":{"0":"post-658332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-andy-pages","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-fifth-time","12":"tag-first-home-run","13":"tag-game","14":"tag-guardians","15":"tag-hit","16":"tag-hitter","17":"tag-inning","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-la-dodgers","20":"tag-ladodgers","21":"tag-last-season","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","24":"tag-losangeles","25":"tag-losangelesdodgers","26":"tag-mlb","27":"tag-no","28":"tag-season","29":"tag-shohei-ohtani","30":"tag-will-smith","31":"tag-yamamoto"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116334036052881305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}