LOS ANGELES — When the Dodgers signed Edwin Diaz last winter, they committed to a dedicated closer for the first time in five years.
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Now they have a closer problem.
Diaz’s struggles since returning from elbow surgery continued Thursday night with his third blown save in his past four appearances. Charged with protecting a two-run lead in the ninth inning, Diaz gave up four consecutive singles and the lead was gone. When Alex Vesia replaced Diaz and gave up the fifth single of the inning, the Milwaukee Brewers had a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Dodgers.
The win in the first of four games this weekend opened a two-game gap between the Brewers (75-47) and Dodgers (73-49) for the best record in the National League. The Atlanta Braves (idle Thursday) sit between them.
The Dodgers had taken a 4-2 lead in the sixth inning on a three-run, pinch-hit home run by Max Muncy. The home run was Muncy’s 131st at Dodger Stadium, moving him past Eric Karros for the stadium record.
That seemed to reward Roki Sasaki for his persistence. The Dodgers’ starting pitcher played with fire all night. He had baserunners in five of his six innings and threw 101 pitches in that time (three short of his MLB career-high), barely more than half strikes (54).
But he got burned only once.
Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out in the fourth inning. Sasaki struck out William Contreras for the second out but lost connection with the strike zone after that. He walked Joey Ortiz on four pitches to force in one run then walked David Hamilton on five pitches to force in another.
Sasaki struck out Jackson Chourio to escape the jam and breezed through two more innings.
But the two gifted runs looked like they might be more than the Dodgers’ offense could overcome.
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They had just two hits in the first four innings against Brewers starter Shane Drohan and didn’t score until the fifth when Miguel Rojas walked to start the inning. Rojas moved up on a ground out then raced home when Ben Rortvedt lined a single just over the glove of leaping third baseman Andrew Vaughn.
Rojas did not beat the throw home from left fielder Jackson Chourio, but Brewers catcher Contreras lost the ball as he tried to put the tag on a diving Rojas.
That cut the Brewers’ lead in half.
Finally in the sixth inning, Tommy Edman and Freddie Freeman drew back-to-back walks, ending Drohan’s night. Antonio Senzatela came in and struck out Teoscar Hernandez for the second out of the inning.
A familiar face from his days in the Colorado Rockies’ rotation, Senzatela moved to the bullpen this season and was traded to the Brewers at the deadline. Along the way, he gained speed – his fastball has averaged 97.3 mph this season (3 mph more than his career average).
He tried to slip one of those fastballs past Muncy, who was pinch-hitting for Rojas. The full-count fastball came in at 100.1 mph – and went out at 105.7 mph. Muncy crushed it to give the Dodgers the lead.
Diaz gave it back in the ninth. In seven appearances since returning from three months on the injured list, Diaz has given up runs in all but one – eight runs in all on 12 hits and three walks in 5⅔ innings.
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More to come on this story.