BALTIMORE — The phone calls started early Friday afternoon.
After the Dodgers’ late arrival from Pittsburgh the night before, scheduled Friday starter Tyler Glasnow reported some bad news to the team’s training staff: His back tightened up on the flight to Baltimore, and a night of sleep hadn’t helped.
Shohei Ohtani pitches during the first inning of a loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
(Scott Taetsch / Getty Images)
Suddenly, Glasnow’s availability for the team’s series-opener against the Orioles was in doubt.
Thus, Dodgers coaches, staffers and front-office officials in Baltimore and back in Los Angeles began what pitching coach Mark Prior described as a “game of telephone.”
“There was a lot of moving parts,” Prior quipped.
First, the team decided to scratch Glasnow from his start, opting for a cautious approach to what they hope is only a minor issue. According to manager Dave Roberts, the team is planning to slot Glasnow back into the rotation early next week.
Then, the team had to decide who to send to the mound on Friday instead. At around 2 p.m., the request went to Shohei Ohtani — who had been scratched from his own scheduled pitching start Wednesday in Pittsburgh while battling an illness, but was plenty willing to fill in with the club in a pinch.
“It’s gonna be OK,” first baseman Freddie Freeman joked as he followed Ohtani into the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards a few hours later. “The unicorn is here.”
Ohtani did his part as the Dodgers tried to snap a three-game losing streak, delivering 3 ⅔ scoreless innings on a limited pitch count.
But, in their latest dispiriting performance, the Dodgers couldn’t make it count, losing to the Orioles 2-1 on Samuel Basallo’s walk-off ninth-inning home run against Tanner Scott.
As has been the case much of the last several weeks, Friday’s game was a grind for the Dodgers.
The Baltimore Orioles’ Samuel Basallo flips his bat after hitting a walk-off home run against the Dodgers Friday in Baltimore.
(Stephanie Scarbrough / Associated Press)
Offensively, they struggled to generate — or capitalize — on many chances. Baltimore starter Dean Kremer retired his first eight batters, including first-inning fly balls from Mookie Betts and Freeman that died at the wall. When the team did create opportunities in the third (getting two aboard with two outs) and the fourth (loading the bases with two outs) they came up empty; continuing their second-half struggles with runners in scoring position.
That gave Ohtani little margin for error. But he managed to post zeros anyway.
His fastball was playing up, topping out at 101.5 mph. His secondary stuff was sharp, leading to five strikeouts and 12 swing-and-misses. And when he did face trouble, he got out of it, stranding a pair of runners in the third inning and another runner at third base in the fourth, finishing his night with back-to-back strikeouts after Ryan Mountcastle doubled off the third-base bag and advanced to third on a wild pitch.
After Ohtani exited, the Dodgers quickly fell behind. In the bottom of the fifth, a pair of walks put two aboard for the Orioles. Then, with lead runner Jackson Holliday breaking for third, a sweeper in the dirt got past Dalton Rushing — who was once again filling in for the injured Will Smith, and allowed his fifth wild pitch in the last two games.
Holliday turned for home as Rushing scrambled to the backstop. By the time Rushing threw to the plate, Holliday was already sliding in safely for the first run of the game.
The Dodgers, at least, didn’t trail for long. On the first pitch of the sixth, Freeman whacked another fly ball that carried deep enough to get out this time, his 19th home run of the year tying the game at 1-1.
But then, more frustration followed. Two runners were stranded later in the inning, after Rushing was forced to leave the game on a painful-looking foul ball off his right shin and Alex Call struck out to retire the side. In the seventh, Betts lined a two-out double in the gap, before Freeman grounded out to leave him stuck on base, as well.
That all kept the score level into the ninth, when Scott, the embattled Dodgers closer, got two outs before making the same mistake that has haunted him all year.
In a 1-and-2 count to Basallo, the left-hander left a fastball right down the middle. Basallo crushed it to right for a no-doubt blast. And on a night the Dodgers were hoping Ohtani could provide a spark with his short-notice start, the team instead fell flat again.
