Gavin Stone’s second-half struggles continue in Dodgers’ loss to A’s

OAKLAND — It’s not pretty – the crumbling infrastructure, empty spaces and focus on a future with more resources that can only get better.

That’s not just the soon-to-be-abandoned Oakland Coliseum and its one-foot-out-the-door occupants. It is also starting to apply to the Dodgers.

Getting by with spare parts and leftovers while an assortment of All-Stars and key players occupy the injured list is not going very well for them lately. They managed fewer hits (two) than the Oakland A’s had home runs (three) in the first six innings on Friday night, closed late on a three-run home run by Shohei Ohtani but lost, 6-5, to the woebegone but surging A’s.

The loss was the Dodgers’ third in a row and sixth in their past eight games. It marked them as a .500 team (30-30) over their past 60 games, a stretch they have spent treading water with a lineup and rotation depleted by injury.

“It’s tough. But I give all 26 guys on a particular night (credit) that they’re fighting. They really are,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after their NL West lead over Arizona dropped to four games. “Certain guys that are playing right now, essentially playing every day, are maybe being a little exposed. You’re not being able to protect certain guys because our depth is certainly tapped in.

“Every night we’re trying to win. We’re trying to win every single game. It is tough when you have stars that are not able to play. Some length to the lineup. … The guys we’re running out there are doing the best they can.”

The lineup without Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Miguel Rojas or Chris Taylor has managed just 37 hits in the first six games of this road trip while striking out 77 times.

“When you have a good team, the only question is if everybody can stay healthy,” outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “Obviously we had a lot of injuries lately. But we just have to keep making things, try to make it happen. Not thinking about the injuries that we have, just trusting the guys we have in this room and going and battling.

“We want to win, obviously. But we know it’s not going to be easy. All the teams, they’re gonna play better when they play against us.”

Hernandez’s two-run home run in the first inning gave the Dodgers an early lead. But the next 15 Dodgers went down in order against Oakland starter Joey Estes. By the time they had another baserunner – on back-to-back two-out walks of Will Smith and Gavin Lux in the sixth inning – the A’s had chased Gavin Stone from the game and built their lead.

Stone allowed two baserunners each in the first and third innings but things fell apart in the fourth and fifth when five of the final eight batters he faced reached base.

It started with solo home runs by Shea Langeliers and Seth Brown in the fourth inning that tied the score. Stone walked leadoff man Lawrence Butler to start the fifth inning, gave up a triple to Miguel Andujar and a double to J.J. Bleday.

Stone was lifted for Joe Kelly, who gave up Oakland’s third home run of the game, a two-run shot by Brent Rooker.

So reliable for the first three months of the season, Stone has regressed since the end of June. In his past five starts, he has a 7.15 ERA, giving up four runs or more in four of the five starts. Opposing batters have hit .375 against him in those starts with seven home runs.

The Dodgers won 12 of Stone’s first 15 starts but they have won just one of his past five.

“He’s been our most consistent starter as far as taking the baseball, giving us length. But I think if you look back at, since that (shutout) … it hasn’t been what he was doing the first few months of the season,” Roberts said. “I don’t know if it’s fatigue. Everything I hear from our guys, he still feels strong and the fastball velocity at times during an outing is right in line with where it has been. That’s a good thing.

“I don’t know if it’s fatigue, but it very well could be.”

With 111⅔ innings under his belt, the 25-year-old right-hander is nearing his career-high (121⅔ in the minor leagues two years ago). But Stone dismisses that as a factor in his second-half struggles.

“I’m just not executing in certain counts, certain situations,” Stone said. “I feel good with all my pitches. I’m just not executing in certain situations.”

The Dodgers finally got their third hit of the game when Amed Rosario made his return, doubling down the left field line as a pinch-hitter to start the seventh inning. A walk and a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs for Ohtani but he bounced harmlessly to first base, extending a week-long hitless streak to 19 plate appearances.

That ended with two outs in the ninth when Ohtani lined a three-run home run into the right field seats, making it a one-run game before the A’s closed it out in front of a season-high 21,060 fans at the Coliseum.

“To be honest, the last several games I haven’t been feeling too great at the plate,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “The previous at-bat before that home run, if I could have contributed a little bit more I think we wouldn’t have been in that spot the next inning.”

With so little help around him in the current lineup, it is certainly easier for teams to approach pitching to Ohtani – or not pitching to him.

“Yeah, it is,” Roberts said. “He’s a guy that – top of the order, most dangerous and most talented player we have – I think the gameplan has to be to try to limit him and if you can limit him you take your chance with the eight other guys.

“Obviously the game, where it was at down four runs (in the ninth), the three-run homer can’t beat them. So they went after him, he made them pay. We had a chance earlier with the bases loaded. … But he can’t come through every time.”

Shohei Ohtani makes it a 1-run game with his 33rd home run of the year! pic.twitter.com/Gjj85ZKaam

— MLB (@MLB) August 3, 2024

Dave Roberts talks about the lack of offense tonight and what he saw from Gavin Stone.

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— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) August 3, 2024

Gavin Stone speaks on his performance tonight.

Catch all the action on #DodgersTV at no extra cost for Spectrum customers with both Internet and mobile services.
: https://t.co/i0HWddfBus pic.twitter.com/bDkzLIibe5

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) August 3, 2024

Shohei Ohtani discusses his late game home run and the Dodgers loss.

Catch all the action on #DodgersTV at no extra cost for Spectrum customers with both Internet and mobile services.
: https://t.co/i0HWddfBus pic.twitter.com/ZCZ3KrwRDC

— SportsNet LA (@SportsNetLA) August 3, 2024