The Dodgers had the game in hand until the ninth, when Edwin Díaz unraveled and Milwaukee turned a night of singles into a 5-4 comeback win.
That finish wasted a strong enough line from Roki Sasaki, even if it never felt especially clean. Sasaki spent much of the night fighting his command, and through five innings he had walked as many batters as he had completed frames.
The Brewers never truly squared him up for power, but they made him work, and in the third inning that work turned messy fast. Sasaki walked three in the frame, and with one out and the bases loaded, Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton each drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in runs.
William Contreras did strike out in the middle of that traffic jam, which kept the damage from growing.
The Dodgers didn’t have much going against Shane Drohan early, so they had to scratch and claw for their first run. That came in the fifth after Ben Rortvedt singled to left with two outs and a runner at second.
Miguel Rojas was waved home with Shohei Ohtani on deck, and although Jackson Chourio’s throw gave Rojas no real margin, Contreras rushed the tag and lost the ball. The error cut Milwaukee’s lead to 2-1.
Sasaki’s toughest test came in the sixth, when Andrew Vaughn reached for the third straight time and Christian Yelich came up with one last chance to add on before the bullpen. Instead, Yelich rolled into an easy double play, and Sasaki finished his six innings allowing two runs. Given how shaky the outing looked at points, that was a solid recovery.
Milwaukee had its own chance to squeeze another inning out of its starter, and that decision came back on them in the sixth. Freddie Freeman, back in the lineup after his injury scare on Wednesday, worked a nine-pitch walk after falling behind 0-2 and surviving an overturned 3-2 strike call. Tommy Edman had already walked to open the inning, and that was enough to send Pat Murphy to Antonio Senzatela.
The move didn’t hold. With two outs, pinch-hitter Max Muncy jumped on a high heater and blasted a three-run homer, flipping the game and giving the Dodgers the lead.
The Brewers stayed alive late, and Kiké Hernández nearly paid for it in the eighth. Tanner Scott faced Yelich with one on and two out, and Yelich drove one down the left-field line that looked dangerous off the bat before Hernández hauled it in right at the wall. Hernández had already made a strong play at third earlier, and the Dodgers kept leaning on that kind of versatility while waiting for the bats to carry the rest.
Then came the ninth, and Díaz couldn’t finish it. Four straight hits, all singles, erased the Dodgers’ lead and turned the game over to Milwaukee.
The sequence included a Chourio RBI single, and after Díaz left with two on and two out, Alex Vesia inherited the mess. Jake Bauers then shot a 1-2 slider through the infield for the go-ahead RBI single, and the Brewers had the lead for good.
Milwaukee didn’t need power to do it. Every run came on singles, and that was enough to hand the Dodgers one of their most painful losses of the season.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto will get the ball for the Dodgers on Friday night after 5.2 scoreless innings in a win over the Diamondbacks, and he’ll try to post back-to-back scoreless starts for the first time this season. Robert Gasser is set to start for Milwaukee, with first pitch at 7:10 p.m. PT.
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Dodgers Suddenly Face A Real Roki Sasaki Decision Late In Games
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Roki Sasaki is at the center of that discussion because he has already shown he can handle relief work, and the Dodgers deep starting-pitching mix makes it harder to assume his best postseason value has to come in the rotation. For a team built to chase October margins, the question is no longer just whether Sasaki can start, but whether the ninth inning might be where he can matter most when the games tighten. [Read more 🡒]