Depressing Dodgers stat just conjured flashbacks of Shohei Ohtani's Angels days

The Angels are tragic for a multitude of reasons, but chief among them is that they never managed to make the postseason — never even managed to crack third place in the AL West — when Shohei Ohtani was in Anaheim. Ohtani was the AL Rookie of the Year in 2018 and won two MVPs as an Angel. He could pitch six scoreless innings and hit a homer in the same game, and the Angels would still lose. Even after six years of that, he gave them the opportunity to match the Dodgers' offer and re-sign him, but Arte Moreno refused.

Of course, the biggest loss in the history of that franchise is the biggest win in the Dodgers'. However, on Wednesday night, the Dodgers looked too much like the Angels for anyone's comfort.

Ohtani made his eighth start of the season, and it was his longest yet. He threw four innings of one-run ball against the Cardinals (Brendan Donovan drove in the run on a bunt single), and he brought the Dodgers back from a deficit he created himself with a two-run homer (his 39th of the season) in the third. He struck out eight batters and drew a walk.

The Dodgers still lost, 5-3.

Dodgers spoiled Shohei Ohtani's longest start of the season, two-RBI night against Cardinals

Justin Wrobleski, Alex Vesia, and Brock Stewart gave up the lead Ohtani created and spoiled the insurance run Andy Pages tacked on with some heads-up base running in the fourth. Wrobleski pitched a bulk three innings behind Ohtani and gave up one run, Vesia came in for the eighth and gave up two (only one earned after a throwing error from Alex Freeland), and Stewart gave up another in the ninth.

The Dodgers might've had more of a chance if Ohtani had been able to pitch a few innings more, but the onus is also on the bullpen to keep that lead locked down. Vesia has been the most stable and healthy reliever this year, but even he faltered. Stewart was the lone bullpen addition at the trade deadline and was supposedly coming back as a new man, but his first few appearances in LA have yielded a 6.75 ERA.

The Dodgers aren't the Angels, but Wednesday night's performance exposed issues that the Dodgers' trade deadline failed to fix. The offense and bullpen are both still struggling, and they're as capable as anyone of blowing Ohtani's best start yet to a .500 team.