There’s a lot of season left and little evidence to go on, but …
Fans are going to ask: What is going on with the Dodgers’ bats? About all they’re hitting is the snooze button — snoozing and, on Wednesday, losing 4-1 to the Cleveland Guardians at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers’ super-imposing lineup looked mostly lifeless most of the game, with only Andy Pages providing a spark in the No. 8 spot until Freddie Freeman hit his first home run this season with two outs in the ninth inning. That cut the Guardians’ lead to three runs before Will Smith flew out to deep center to end it.
Before Freeman’s 407-foot blast, Pages had the only answers for Guardians starter Gavin Williams. In seven innings, Cleveland’s 6-foot-6 right-hander frustrated Dodgers hitters, holding them to two hits, striking out 10 without giving up a run.
The Dodgers finally threatened against reliever Shawn Armstrong in the eighth inning, getting runners on second and third on a Teoscar Hernández single and Pages double, but Shohei Ohtani struck out on three pitches to end the inning.
He and his teammates continued to be plagued by slow starts to start this season, digging themselves a too-familiar hole Wednesday, falling behind 2-0 for the fifth time in six games.
And this time, they couldn’t conjure up a clutch hit or two to help them climb out of it — including not by Ohtani, who is now three for 18 with seven walks and no extra-base hits this season.
After telling reporters Tuesday night he felt his swing was “a little off,” Ohtani took a rare on-field batting practice Wednesday — just as he had before his epic three-home run game that he also pitched and struck out 10 to close out last season’s NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Watching home runs fly through the fresh air before the game didn’t prove as effective a remedy this time.
After Ohtani’s first-inning walk extended his overall on-base streak to 37 games, the Dodgers’ leadoff man went 0 for 3 at the plate, including being called out on a challenge that resulted in a double play in the sixth inning.
Before Ohtani took batting practice, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts took questions about his biggest star’s tepid start and said he wasn’t worried.
“There’s going to be guys that we’re talking about that are off to slow starts, and then a series later, the article is going to be ‘He’s off to a hot start,’” Roberts said. “And it could change in two days. So it’s certainly overblown. I completely understand it — but the guys that have been around a long time understand that you can’t let that affect you.”
The Dodgers’ hitters might be waiting on a wakeup call, but the Guardians jumped on Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the third inning, scoring twice on miscues by him and catcher Smith.
Daniel Schneemann, the Guardians’ No. 7 hitter, hit a leadoff double to right field, got a good jump on Yamamoto, stole third base and then jogged home after Smith’s errant throw wound up in left field.
Yamamoto then let Gabriel Arias, the No. 8 hitter, get a hold of a curveball for a 407-foot home run to straightaway center field, his first this season.
Those were the only runs Cleveland scored on Yamamoto, last season’s World Series MVP. In six innings, the right-hander gave up four hits, struck out two, walked a batter and hit Angel Martínez on the inside of the left knee — in almost precisely the same place that Ohtani did Tuesday night.
The Guardians (4-3) pushed the lead to 4-0 when they took out some insurance with two more runs in the eighth inning when José Ramírez’s fly ball cleared the left-field wall for a two-run home run that also brought across Martínez, who had walked.
Yamamoto (1-1) didn’t have his pinpoint command, but yet again, he also didn’t get any help from his friends. Ranking in the bottom five among big league pitchers in run support last season, the Dodgers couldn’t drum up support for their ace of aces Wednesday either.
Williams, conversely, was pin-prick sharp, confounding the Dodgers (4-2) with the exception of Pages, who had hits in both of his at-bats against Williams.
With Yamamoto taking the hill, the Dodgers became the first team in MLB history to start three consecutive Japanese-born pitchers — with Sasaki having started Monday, Ohtani on Tuesday.
“That’s fantastic,” said Roberts, who was born in Naha, Okinawa, Japan. “These guys are three great men. They’re all different.
“This is just a special time in Major League Baseball, certainly with the Japanese players that we’re fortunate to have and around the league, and players of all nationalities. It’s an honor to know that I manage these three guys.”
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