Dodgers Drop Game 3 Due to a Disappointing Start by Yu Darvish

The Dodgers lost their third game of the postseason and are now trailing the World Series 2-1 against the Astros.

The Dodgers got down, and they got down early due to an underwhelming performance by Yu Darvish. The Dodgers found themselves in a hole very early in the ballgame.

Yu Darvish allowed four earned runs on six hits without even making it through the 2nd inning. Darvish failed to locate any of his pitches and clearly did not have his stuff tonight. The Astros capitalized on Darvish’s emotions and put the Dodgers in a four-run deficit to start the game.

In the 2nd inning, the Astros led off the inning with a solo home run by Yuli Gurriel. Things continued to unravel for the Dodgers as he allowed a double to Reddick and a walk to Gattis. Darvish was on the ropes then, and Marwin Gonzalez delivered what you would have thought was the knockout blow with an RBI single off the left-center wall. But the damage wasn’t done yet. Darvish faced McCann and McCann promptly delivered another RBI single to bring the score to 3-0.

As if Dave Roberts hadn’t seen enough out of Darvish missing his spots, he let him face the top of the Astros lineup. Springer lined out to second, and Bregman hit a sacrifice fly to center to extend the Astros lead to 4-0. Darvish faced Altuve with a runner on first and doubled off the wall and that finally forced Roberts to make a move.

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The game found some stability once Kenta Maeda took the mound. Kenta Maeda took over for Darvish and did a heck of a job. Maeda’s final line was 2 ⅔ IP and only allowed 1 hit while striking out two. Maeda did a great job stepping up for a lackluster performance by Darvish, and he kept the Dodgers in the game.

The game was relatively one-sided after Darvish’s poor start. The Dodgers continued to battle back, but the four runs seemed insurmountable. The Dodgers bullpen pitched well, as usual. The only run they allowed was on an error by Tony Watson in the 5th inning.

The Astros bullpen took control of the Dodgers offense. For the second consecutive game, they were left with under five hits. The Dodgers need to do a better job during their at-bats and getting to the Astros bullpen earlier in the game.

Takeaways

I’m not happy with Dave Roberts tonight. Roberts had the quick hook to remove Rich Hill from a game in the 5th inning, but yet couldn’t make a move to take out Darvish when he failed to hit his spot with all of his pitches. Darvish look overwhelmed. He did not have his best stuff. He was all over the plate, and the Astros took advantage of it. Every ball hit off Darvish was hit hard. He struggled tonight and faced more batters than he should have.

The Dodgers heart of the lineup needs to get going. The Dodgers top 4 of their lineup went 0-14 tonight. If we bring that back to game 2, we’re 1-31, I don’t even need to give you a batting average to tell you that’s not good.

The offensive gameplan is not good. For the third consecutive game, we allowed the starting pitcher to pitch past the 5th inning. The Dodgers are supposed to have the edge over the Astros regarding bullpen. But that hasn’t been the case this series. The Dodgers hitter are not getting into that bullpen, which leaves me baffled about what their gameplan is at the plate.

Next: Pressure is on the Astros

The Dodgers now find themselves down 2-1. Game 3 was supposed to be a game where the Dodgers would have an edge because of Darvish. Too bad Darish did not live up to the hype