SACRAMENTO — The Dodgers needed a clean bullpen day to finish off a series sweep, and it never came. Charlie Barnes and company got roughed up for seven runs in a 7-1 loss to the Athletics on Wednesday, a finale that turned into exactly the kind of scattered bullpen-game mess Los Angeles was hoping to avoid. The silver lining is that it barely mattered. The Dodgers had already locked up the series two games to one before the first pitch, and they’ll head home with far bigger things on their mind than a getaway-day blowout.
Dreyer Sets Up, Barnes Can’t Follow Through
Jack Dreyer opened on the mound and did his job well, striking out three in a scoreless first that gave Los Angeles the platform it wanted. Charlie Barnes took over from there and never found his rhythm. Jonah Heim’s solo homer in the second got Oakland on the board, and by the time Barnes’ day ended after seven innings, he had been charged with seven runs on 12 hits, the kind of line that turns a competitive afternoon into a laugher. The bullpen day format is supposed to buy time and matchups. Instead it bought Oakland’s lineup batting practice.
Freeman Answers, Briefly
For a moment, it looked like the Dodgers might make a game of it. Freddie Freeman tied things at 1-1 in the third with a home run to right center, his 14th of the season, punctuating a first inning in which he had also drawn a walk and stolen a base. It was the kind of complete at-bat-to-baserunning sequence that has defined his year. But Oakland answered right back in the fourth, scratching across two runs on a Lawrence Butler groundout and a Henry Bolte single, and the Dodgers never got the tying run within sight again.
Tucker Walks Into a Wall
Kyle Tucker’s afternoon was the most Kyle Tucker kind of frustrating. He reached base four times and saw almost nothing to hit, drawing four walks in four plate appearances without a single ball put in play. Oakland’s staff simply refused to challenge him, and the lineup around him could not make the free passes count. Andy Pages, Max Muncy and Tommy Edman combined to strand runner after runner, and outside of Miguel Rojas’ two-hit day, the Dodgers managed just five hits as a team against four Oakland arms. Shohei Ohtani, still searching for his rhythm at the plate, went hitless in five at-bats with two strikeouts.
Alika Williams Buries It
Any hope of a late rally disappeared in the eighth when Alika Williams turned on a Dodgers reliever and drove a two-run homer to left center, pushing the lead to 7-1 and putting the finishing touches on a five-run middle-innings stretch that Oakland strung together almost entirely off two-out hits and extra-base damage. Shea Langeliers had already gone deep in the fifth as part of that surge, and by the time Williams connected, the only question left was how quickly the Dodgers bullpen could get through the ninth.
The Series Is What Matters
None of it changes the bottom line. Los Angeles came to Sacramento and took two of three from an Athletics club that has given them trouble all year, and Dave Roberts did it one night after becoming the fastest manager in modern history to reach 1,000 career wins. A finale loss in a bullpen game is not the way anyone wanted to close it out, but it is a footnote next to the milestone and the series banked.
Up Next
The Dodgers return home to open a four-game series at Dodger Stadium on Thursday, with Roki Sasaki taking the mound opposite Randy Vasquez and first pitch set for 7:10 p.m. Shohei Ohtani, originally lined up to start Wednesday’s finale, was bumped from that turn and will instead start Friday at home against the Padres.
LOS ANGELES — Roki Sasaki gets the ball Thursday as the Dodgers open a four-game series at home against the Padres. Credit: @Dodgers