DENVER — The half-empty Dodger clubhouse was so quiet you can hear a successful streak snap Monday. However amid the silence there was one dialog that spoke volumes.
After a 4-3 walk-off loss to the last-place Colorado Rockies — a loss arrange by two poor performs from proper fielder Teoscar Hernández — Mookie Betts met with supervisor Dave Roberts and Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, in Roberts’ workplace.
Betts, the Dodgers’ shortstop, is a six-time Gold Glove winner in proper subject. Hernández will not be. On Monday, Hernández threw to the mistaken base within the third inning, permitting the Rockies to attain their second run, and within the ninth he was unable to carry Ezequiel Tovar’s bloop double. Two pitches later, Warming Bernabel bounced a single as much as center, scoring Tovar to finish the sport.
The Betts dialog afterward was non-public. However the circumstances that led to it weren’t. Clearly the bullpen will not be the Dodgers’ solely downside.
“He’s received to get higher on the market. There’s simply no [other] approach to put it,” Roberts mentioned of Hernández. “It’s not a scarcity of effort. However, you recognize, we’ve simply received to sort of get higher. We do.”
A technique to try this is to maneuver Betts again to proper subject, the place he gained six Gold Gloves in seven seasons, and use Alex Freeland or Miguel Rojas at shortstop. Freeland performed almost 300 video games at shortstop within the minors whereas Rojas has performed greater than 940 video games there within the majors.
“We should always have gained that recreation,” Roberts mentioned. “It is a laborious one.”
Hernández is second on the workforce with 74 RBIs and is tied for second with 20 house runs, so the Dodgers (71-54) want his offense within the lineup. However his protection — particularly his vary, which is at a premium in huge parks similar to Coors Area — has more and more grow to be a supply of frustration for Roberts.
It was that and extra Monday.
After a sacrifice fly from Dalton Speeding and a line-drive single from Shohei Ohtani staked the Dodgers to a 2-0 lead within the second, Hernández helped give it again within the third. With Kyle Karros on first after a stroll, Brenton Doyle singled to proper and continued to second when Hernández, who received a horrible bounce on the ball, threw to 3rd in an unsuccessful try and get Karros quite than going to second and protecting Doyle at first.
Mookie Betts reacts after putting out within the seventh inning in opposition to the Colorado Rockies on Monday.
(Justin Edmonds / Getty Photos)
When Ryan Ritter adopted with a single, each runners scored.
“I don’t know in the event you would have had a play on that one. I do know it shouldn’t have been second and third,” Roberts mentioned. “In order that base hit scores two proper there.”
The Dodgers went again in entrance within the sixth when Freddie Freeman drew a leadoff stroll, stole second and scored on Freeland’s two-out pinch-hit double. However Tovar matched that within the seventh with a one-out solo homer, his seventh of the season.
Tovar’s subsequent at-bat got here with one out within the ninth and he lifted a excessive fly into shallow proper subject, between Freeland, going out from second, and Hernández lumbering a great distance in from proper. Hernández, who didn’t dive, appeared to have the ball in his glove for a second however couldn’t maintain it. And when it tumbled out, Tovar was at second.
“It was a kind of the place you needed to make a spectacular play. I didn’t,” mentioned Hernández, who was taking part in deep in a no-doubles protection.
“I [got] to the ball, I get the ball, however it got here out of my glove.“
And when Bernabel adopted with a single, the Dodgers’ three-game successful streak general and their 10-game successful streak in opposition to the Rockies (36-89) have been over. In addition they failed so as to add to their division lead over the San Diego Padres, who they may meet once more this weekend.
For Roberts, extra painful was the actual fact the loss got here in opposition to the worst workforce within the majors after Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave the Dodgers seven sturdy innings whereas Colorado needed to go to the bullpen within the fifth after starter Kyle Freeland left with a blister on his pitching hand.
“We get a starter that goes seven innings, their starter goes 4 innings and we don’t win this recreation,” Roberts mentioned. “That’s a tough one to place into phrases.”
Sending Betts to proper and shifting Hernández’s bat to left rather than Michael Conforto (who’s hitting .190) could be one approach to voice his displeasure.
“Protection is a giant a part of postseason baseball and successful baseball,” Roberts conceded. “He’s simply received to proceed to get higher.”
