Shohei Ohtani's triple play, Dodgers meltdown vs. Angels sends fans into total spiral

On Tuesday night, the Dodgers suffered their second horrifying loss in the same amount of days, this time to the Angels. It had the makings of a thrilling victory for the Dodgers, as the two teams battled by increments through the first few innings of the game.

A Teoscar Hernández go-ahead single in the top of the first was immediately met by a Taylor Ward RBI, a Yoán Moncada RBI, and then a Jo Adell RBI in the bottom of the inning, but rookie Dalton Rushing evened things up with a two-run blast, only his second homer of the season, in the second. Things went back and forth from there, culminating in a 5-5 tie with two outs in the fifth.

But Michael Conforto struck out swinging on a high fastball with the bases loaded (again!), and you could put a pin in that as the moment the game really slipped away from the Dodgers.

In the top of the sixth, with men on first and second and Shohei Ohtani at the plate, he grabbed a fastball from Brock Burke and sent it right over Burke's head ... straight in Zach Neto's glove. One out.

Neto was covering second, so he stepped on the bag to catch Miguel Rojas. Two outs. Dalton Rushing was way off of first and couldn't beat Neto's cannon to Nolan Schanuel. A triple play — the eighth in Angels history. And thanks to a player with a lot of history in Anaheim.

Ohtani sort of made up for it during his next at-bat, when he hit a solo homer to put the Dodgers on top. Schanuel brought in a run on a sac fly in the bottom of the inning, and the game went to extras. Ben Casparius got out of the bottom of the ninth but couldn't do the same in the 10th, and an Adell RBI single to score the ghost runner let the Angels walk it off.

Dodgers' division lead over Padres disappears after suffering mortifying walk-off vs. Angels on Tuesday

With that loss, the Dodgers have seen their division lead over the Padres completely disappear, and the two clubs are now tied for first place in the NL West. They still have six games to play against each other this season, three of which will take place at Dodger Stadium right after this Angels series wraps up.

The triple play was an astounding coincidence, but the Dodgers' weaknesses were still on fully display without it. Conforto keeps getting every possible opportunity to do something in a big spot for the team that's giving him $17 million, and he never does anything. Even the bullpen's most historically unshakeable relievers are cracking lately. Things might've been different if Brock Stewart were still healthy, but he'd just gone onto the IL after pitching just 3 2/3 innings following the trade deadline.

The Padres were breathing down the Dodgers' necks down the stretch last year, but they never caught up. There are still 42 games left in this season. Dodgers fans were already worried, but now might be the time for full-blown panic.