Dodgers bullpen blows another before All-Star break

DETROIT – The All-Star break is not coming at a good time for the Dodgers. They could have used it a week ago.

One day after blowing a five-run lead in the ninth inning, the Dodgers tried to nurse a one-run lead over the final three innings of a ‘bullpen game’ with limited resources in that bullpen. It didn’t work.

Yohan Ramirez (who surrendered the walkoff home run in the 10th inning in Saturday’s loss) gave up the tying and game-winning runs in the ninth inning Sunday. The Detroit Tigers walked them again, this time with a 4-3 win on Ramirez’s back-to-back errors on sacrifice bunts.

The Dodgers reached the All-Star break in first place in the National League West for the eighth time in the past 10 full seasons. But they got there with just one win in their last seven games and five in their past 15, having been less than a .500 team (23-24) since mid-May.

“It’s been difficult,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I said this a few days ago, it feels like we have to play perfect baseball. And that’s not the way it should be for us to win baseball games. But where we’re at — it’s hard putting runs across and you feel like the starting pitchers, the relievers, they have to be perfect. And that’s just hard to do. You have to play perfect defense. You can’t give away outs on the bases. And that’s a tough way to consistently win.”

The Dodgers needed pitching so badly just to get to the All-Star break this weekend that they claimed a pitcher off the waiver wire from the Pittsburgh Pirates one day and started him the next.

Desperate times?

“If you’re talking about the last game before the All-Star break, in a day game, on the road, and it’s a waiver claim – it’s desperate times. Absolutely,” Roberts said before sending Brent Honeywell Jr. to the mound against the Tigers. “I don’t think there’s any other way to say it. It’s unfortunate. We’re here for various reasons but it doesn’t change the fact that this is where we’re at. We still needed to find someone and I just hope to God that Brent can go out there and give us some length today.”

Well-traveled, oft-injured former top prospect Honeywell gave them quality if not quantity. He retired nine of the 10 batters he faced in three scoreless innings in his Dodgers debut.

Honeywell arrived in Detroit at 1 a.m. Sunday morning. His new teammates welcomed him to town with a three-run lead before he even threw his first pitch in Dodger blue.

“It’s been a long 24 hours,” Honeywell said. “But you’re getting ready to pitch for the Dodgers so it doesn’t really matter. You’re getting ready to pitch in the major leagues. You’ve got to be ready to go no matter where it is. I just wanted to be sure I was ready to go and give us the best chance to win that I could when I was out there.”

Honeywell was only out there for 36 pitches. He threw 49 for the Pirates on Wednesday but Roberts didn’t ask for more Sunday.

“He threw strikes. He kept guys off balance,” Roberts said. “We didn’t know if we were going to get one inning or two innings, let alone three. And I give him a lot of credit. He flew in last night. Threw up three zeros. And left the ball game with a lead.”

The Dodgers did not add to that lead. Five Tigers pitchers held them scoreless over the next eight innings – including 3 ⅔ one-hit, five-strikeout innings from former Dodger Kenta Maeda.

Honeywell’s three scoreless innings left 18 outs for the Dodgers’ depleted bullpen to cover. Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen were unavailable due to usage. Roberts said Daniel Hudson was unavailable with back stiffness (though he said he could have pitched). Alex Vesia would have been pitching for the fourth time in five days so Roberts wanted to stay away from him as well.

“Today was tough because you only have so many options,” Roberts said. “You’re trying to get the most out of guys. Put up three runs in the first inning. Felt great about getting a lead. Unfortunately, we couldn’t tack on the other eight innings. Had some opportunities. And they just crawl their way back into the game.”

Ryan Yarbrough gave up five hits and walked two in his 2 ⅔ innings. The Tigers scored single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, leaving six runners on base during Yarbrough’s run.

Michael Petersen and Anthony Banda combined to get the game through seven innings with the Dodgers still clinging to a one-run lead.

Ramirez got through the eighth inning without incident — pitching for the 25th time in 47 games since the Dodgers picked him up off the DFA scrap heap as well. Then he went back out for the ninth with a left-handed batter (Zach McKinstry) set to lead off.

“You look at the ninth inning and you have no one left available,” Roberts said. “So, if you shoot Vesia right there, you’ve got a position player pitching the 10th inning. So the way Yohan was throwing the ball, I felt you’ve got to kind of try to middle it, thread the needle, and give yourself a chance.

“He hung an 0-2 breaking ball to McKinstry for a triple. And that sort of opened the floodgates. That’s baseball. … That’s kind of where we’re at. You’re trying to hope to piece a game together and win a ballgame.”

Vesia was warming up in the bullpen during the inning. But Ramirez stayed in after the leadoff triple by McKinstry and gave the lead away with an RBI single by Justyn-Henry Malloy.

Ramirez misplayed one bunt, trying to catch it before it hit the ground and stumbling. Then he fielded a second consecutive bunt, rushed a throw to try and get the lead runner at third base and threw wildly.

“I tried to grab the ball on the fly on the bunt and I dove and couldn’t get the out,” Ramirez said in Spanish. “I kept trying to keep my head strong and compete, throwing strikes and controlling what I could.

“If I had made a good throw, I had a chance at an out (on the play at third) and that was my main focus in that situation, to get the out at third and try to get the double play with the other hitter. But it didn’t turn out the way I wanted.”

The Dodgers head to the break with their heads spinning from back-to-back walkoff defeats, having won just one of their last five series.

“People that understand in this clubhouse, there’s ebbs and flows in a season,” said Freddie Freeman, one of five Dodgers headed to the All-Star Game. “We could’ve easily swept this series. It just doesn’t go that way. It’s baseball. You just got to handle it in stride.

“We’ve been in better spots, we’ve been in worse spots. That’s how it kind of goes.”