Blake Treinen gives up two solo home runs in the ninth to tie the score before Donovan Solano’s walk-off RBI single in the 10th gives the Padres a 6-5 win, the third time in the past 13 games the Dodgers have led by five runs and lost.
SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers don’t seem to have enough fingers to plug all the leaks they are springing.
For the third time in their past 13 games, a five-run lead wasn’t enough to get the Dodgers a victory. They scored five times in the first inning against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, then sat back and watched the lead disappear over the next eight innings.
It was only a two-run lead by the ninth inning and Blake Treinen gave up two solo home runs to tie the score before Donovon Solano’s walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning gave the Padres a 6-5 win.
“This is a game that hurts,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “You got to win this game tonight.”
There have been a few like that recently.
The loss was the Dodgers’ fourth in their past six games overall and their fourth walkoff defeat in their past six road games.
The Dodgers took a five-run lead into the ninth inning at Detroit on July 13 and lost — one half of back-to-back walkoff losses to the Tigers. Saturday in Houston, they led 5-0 after the top of the sixth and eventually lost to the Astros on a ninth-inning walkoff home run surrendered by Treinen.
This meltdown even extended to the coaching staff.
In the 10th inning after Alex Vesia intentionally walked Jurickson Profar to load the bases with one out, the Padres sent up Solano to pinch-hit for Jake Cronenworth, prompting Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior to make a mound visit — as they do virtually every time a pinch-hitter enters the game.
But Roberts then left the dugout, planning to replace Vesia with Evan Phillips to face the right-handed Solano. He was stopped by home-plate umpire Dan Iassogna and reminded that the rules do not allow back-to-back mound visits. Vesia had to face the next batter and the Dodgers were assessed a pitch-clock violation.
Three pitches later, the game was over.
“We take pride in doing the best we can. I think our bullpen has been one of the best, if not the best, over the last five years since I’ve been here,” Treinen said. “There’s obviously going to be some tough stretches. And a lot of that falls on me and two of the last few that you talked about.
“I don’t know if we really think much about it. It’s just the day of when it happens, it’s pretty frustrating.”
It was an awkward ending to a game that started so promising for the Dodgers. Buoyed by their trade-deadline boost and with a Petco Park record crowd of 47,559 on hand, the Dodgers announced their presence with authority, taking that 5-0 lead after the first half-inning Tuesday.
The Dodgers’ deadline moves are certain to shake up their roster in the weeks ahead with the anticipated return of injured players. Two of the players likely to see their roles – or team – change had big hits in the big inning. Andy Pages drove in two runs with a single and Cavan Biggio bounced a fly ball off the foul pole down the right field line for a two-run home run.
But that was it. The Padres rolled out six relievers after starter Matt Waldron and the Dodgers had just three more hits over the final nine innings.
“They matched up with the ‘pen,” Roberts said of the disappearing offense. “I think they used five or six guys tonight. It was a different look and you saw that they got the lefties on Shohei (Ohtani) the last two at-bats. They just matched up. We just didn’t get that same look.”
Staked to that big early lead, Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow let most of it get away.
He gave up a solo home run to Manny Machado in the second inning and allowed two more runs in the third inning on consecutive hits by Luis Arraez (double), Jurickson Profar (RBI single) and Jake Cronenworth (RBI double).
Glasnow settled in after that and retired 12 of the next 15 batters he faced while completing seven innings for the first time since doing it in back-to-back starts in mid-June. Glasnow struck out eight while walking just one but said he felt “not sharp.”
“I think it got better as the game went on,” Glasnow said. “Just that one strange inning. But yeah, definitely not as sharp as I usually feel.
“Rhythm just feels a little foreign right now. It always happens during the course of the season and I’m definitely working through it right now for sure.”
Nonetheless, it was the longest start by a Dodgers pitcher since Gavin Stone’s complete-game shutout in Chicago on June 26 – and left just two innings for the Dodgers’ taxed bullpen to cover.
Even that was too much to ask. The Dodgers’ bullpen hasn’t had a scoreless game since July 12 and now has a 6.75 ERA in 12 games since then.
Anthony Banda got through a scoreless eighth. But Machado crushed BTreinen’s first pitch of the ninth inning for a 414-foot solo home run. Alex Bregman did the same for his ninth-inning walkoff home run off Treinen in Houston. Two batters later, Jackson Merrill tied the score with a solo home run to right field.
“I take pride in being successful for my teammates,” Treinen said. “They work hard and put up five runs on the board, gave us a chance to go out there, put their faith in me to go put up a zero and I didn’t get the job down. So I’m gonna need to be better than what I have been.”
Returning from shoulder surgery, Treinen has had diminished velocity on his fastball this season.
“I don’t know if anybody’s done damage on the fastball like Bregman did to me,” Treinen said. “Machado is a very familiar face with me. The most impressive one is probably Jackson Merrill. It’s a ball and a half inside. So I’m not going to try to reinvent the wheel. I know who I am. They give me lanes to be successful. It just comes down to execution.
“Movement patterns are great. My velo has been what it’s been this year. I know it’s gonna be a focus and talking point for a lot of people. But at the end of the day, execution and stuff will win. Velocity is a luxury. I would love to have more. But I have what I have. It’s been working for literally a year. Just a few outings have really bit me.”
The Dodgers went down quickly against Padres reliever Robert Suarez in the 10th inning, failing to even advance their free runner. In the bottom of the 10th, walks loaded the bases, the Dodgers mishandled their pitching change and Solano slapped a ground ball down the third-base line to drive in the winning run.
