DETROIT — With the starting rotation in tatters, the Dodgers have asked a lot of their bullpen. A lot.
The group has mostly been up to the challenge. Not Saturday.
Ricky Vanasco and Evan Phillips combined to blow a five-run lead in the ninth inning and Yohan Ramirez gave up a two-run home run in the 10th as the Dodgers lost a game they had well in hand, 11-9, on Saturday afternoon.
The loss was the Dodgers’ ninth in their past 14 games as they stagger toward the All-Star break.
The Dodgers built a seemingly secure 9-4 lead thanks to another big game from Shohei Ohtani and uncommon support from the bottom of the lineup.
Ohtani had a triple, two RBI, scored three times and hit the 200th home run of his major-league career.
Early this season, Ohtani passed Hideki Matsui (176) for the most home runs in MLB by a Japanese-born player. His fifth-inning drive curled around the right-field foul pole, making him the 375th player in major-league history and the 31st active player with 200 career home runs.
With one game left before the All-Star break, Ohtani leads the National League with 29 home runs and a 1.034 OPS and is second in batting average (.314) and third in RBI (69).
Since replacing Mookie Betts as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter 23 games ago, he has been their leading man in many ways – he is 29 for 89 (.326) with five doubles, two triples, 10 home runs, 21 runs scored and 23 driven in.
He led off the game Saturday with his triple and scored on a groundout by Freddie Freeman. The game was tied 2-2 in the fifth when he went deep to put the Dodgers in the lead. They pulled away with seven runs in the next four innings.
While Ohtani was leading the offense from the top, the bottom of the order featuring four players batting under .200 and with OPS .600 or lower – and backup catcher Austin Barnes – earned its per diem. The downtrodden group combined for five hits (three from Gavin Lux), scored four runs and drove in four, including a two-run home run by Kiké Hernandez.
That seemed like enough when rookie starter Justin Wrobelski handed a lead to Anthony Banda, Blake Treinen and Alex Vesia. They each contributed a scoreless inning and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts handed the five-run lead to Vanasco, who had not pitched since July 3 with Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Vanasco didn’t retire a batter, allowing three consecutive hits to start the ninth. Two runs scored, creating a save situation for Evan Phillips who fumbled it. He retired two batters but then gave up an RBI single to Carson Kelly and a game-tying, two-run home run to Colt Keith.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the 10th inning but Freeman bounced into a double play.
After a sacrifice bunt moved the winning run to third base in the bottom of the 10th, the Dodgers went with a five-man infield. They needed to put a man in the left-field seats. That’s where Gio Urshela hit his walkoff, two-run home run.
