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LOS ANGELES — This homestand didn’t play out how the Dodgers envisioned it would. It started off with a three-game sweep at the hands of the Pirates, a sub-.500 team that L.A. has been dominant against in recent history. It ended with a split of a four-game series with the NL East-leading Mets, in which the Dodgers took the first two contests before unceremoniously dropping the next two.
That includes Sunday’s series finale at Dodger Stadium, a 5-4 Dodgers loss in 10 innings. The Mets rallied to take the lead in the top of the eighth against Brusdar Graterol and Alex Vesia, and though the Dodgers tied it down to their last out in the ninth, the Mets retook the lead for good in the 10th. The Dodgers, who are 35-19 overall, are now 0-4 in extra-inning games this year.
The loss marks the end of a grueling stretch for the Dodgers in which they played 31 games in 30 days, going 19-12 in that span.
“It’s just ending on a sour note, obviously, to lose two in a row at home,” said manager Dave Roberts. “But the body of work, 19-12, considering what we went through, pretty positive.”
Still, that run took its toll on the Dodgers, perhaps felt nowhere more acutely than the bullpen. L.A.’s relief corps was especially run down on Sunday due to Walker Buehler going just 2 1/3 innings the night before.
Sunday’s starter Julio Urías fared better, working into the sixth inning and hitting the 90-pitch mark for his second consecutive outing. He allowed just one run — a solo homer to Starling Marte in the third — and while his manager praised him for “figuring it out” during the outing, Urías felt it wasn’t enough.
“That’s where the frustration comes in,” Urías said through an interpreter. “I fell a little short today, especially after all of the work the bullpen has done. I just felt like the damage [was too much] and the outing was too short.”
The Dodgers needed six relievers on Saturday to cover 6 2/3 innings, three of whom also pitched on Sunday. Evan Phillips — whom the Dodgers tried to avoid using on Saturday but were forced to use due to a recent rule change — and Caleb Ferguson each held the lead for L.A., but Graterol struggled, allowing three earned runs for the second straight game.
Roberts pointed to inconsistent command with the fastball — Graterol hit a batter with a pitch — and a lack of feel for the slider, while also suggesting that the flame-throwing right-hander’s emotions may be getting to him.
“It doesn’t matter how hard you throw, you’ve still got to command the baseball, and he’s just not,” Roberts said. “He keeps running deeper counts, and he’s just not commanding the baseball.”
After the Mets took the lead off Graterol in the eighth, Vesia, who pitched a scoreless inning on Saturday, took over and allowed the runner he inherited from Graterol to score. Roberts noted a lack of sharpness on Vesia’s behalf as well.
Next up was Craig Kimbrel, who threw 10 pitches in a clean top of the ninth before the Dodgers came back to tie it in the bottom of the frame. With Daniel Hudson unavailable due to having pitched in the first two games of the series, Kimbrel stayed in for the top of the 10th and gave up a leadoff double to J.D. Davis, which cashed in the Mets’ automatic runner. Although a nice play by Trea Turner to double off Davis allowed the Dodgers to head to their half of the frame trailing by just one, L.A.’s top of the order was unable to get its own auto runner home.
“I think this last week, we definitely could have played better, for sure,” said Turner. “I think we are capable of a lot, we expect a lot out of ourselves, but we know things are going to happen, we’re gonna lose every once in a while and whatnot. But it’s how we bounce back, how we keep our focus on what we’re doing.”
Los Angeles has an off-day Monday ahead of a three-game series against the White Sox in Chicago that begins on Tuesday. It’s safe to say that the team has been looking forward to this.
“We’ve had it marked on our calendar for quite some time,” said Roberts. “I think guys are anxious to kind of get away from the game for a day. So [once we get] to Chicago, we’ll be reset, and we’ll be ready.”
