ST. LOUIS — The Dodgers have had a lot to overcome this week – an eroding starting rotation, an overworked bullpen, a lineup featuring more sub-Mendoza Line batting averages than the National League leaders in runs scored should feature.
But there was one thing they couldn’t overcome Saturday night – Paul Emmel’s strike zone.
A pair of questionable strike calls by the home plate umpire – including the final pitch of the game to Mookie Betts – cut short a Dodgers’ comeback and left them saddled with a 6-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Nothing we can do about it. It’s over with now,” Betts said.
“He called it. Nothing you can do. He called it a strike. Can’t take it back.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t hesitate when asked about the game-ending call.
“He missed it,” Roberts said. “Everyone is trying to compete, all of us. And it’s unfortunate that missed call determined the finality of that game. It was a great at-bat. It’s unfortunate.”
With the game tied in the bottom of the eighth inning, Dodgers reliever Victor Gonzalez gave up a three-run home run to Nolan Gorman – Gorman’s third homer in this series.
The Dodgers had gone hitless since J.D. Martinez’s three-run home run in the sixth inning but started building a ninth-inning comeback with a leadoff double by Miguel Vargas, a single by David Peralta and an RBI double by Jason Heyward.
James Outman hit a soft liner to second base for one out and Will Smith went to the plate as a pinch-hitter. He worked the count to his advantage at 3-and-1 and took a pitch up and out of the strike zone. Emmel called it a strike.
“Looking back, it was a buffer zone pitch, which gives them a little latitude off the plate,” Roberts said. “But that certainly changed the inning too. But again, that’s just one of those things where, you just hate to see the game determined by someone who’s not wearing a player’s uniform.”
With the count full, Smith drove in the second run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. That brought Betts up with the tying run on second base.
He fouled off a fastball and then a slider from Cardinals reliever Geovanny Gallegos who then tried to tempt Betts into a third swing with three pitches well out of the strike zone. With Freddie Freeman (2 for 3 on the night with a 10-game hitting streak) on deck, Betts didn’t offer and took a fourth consecutive pitch – a fastball clearly outside to everyone but Emmel. Betts hopped in the air in obvious frustration as he spun away from the plate and walked to the dugout.
“Just sucks. It sucks when a game ends like that,” Martinez said. “We did such a great job of coming back in that game against some really good pitching. Even Will’s 3-1 pitch – it’s tough when it happens.
“Mookie’s really good at not swinging at balls. Pretty much from the dugout, any time you see him take a pitch and get frustrated like that, you kind of know that he missed it. You go back and look at it – I don’t want to get myself in trouble.”
Betts was careful with his comments as well, saying “it’s all negative for me” if he argues the call.
“It was a good at-bat. There was nothing else I could have done,” Betts said. “At that point, it’s out of my hands and in his. It is what it is.”
Their comeback thwarted, the Dodgers were left to take the positives out of their third loss in the past five games – including what passes for a quality start by one of their starting pitchers these days.
Noah Syndergaard gave them five innings, allowing three runs in the first two innings but then retiring 11 of the final 12 batters he faced. They were the most encouraging signs from the right-hander in some time.
“The first two innings have been my Achilles heel my whole career. It’s just been paralysis by analysis, trying to feel certain things in my delivery as opposed to just focusing on executing pitches,” Syndergaard said. “But it was nice that I was able to bend a little bit and not break. … I felt like I finally found my groove those last three innings.”
Mindful of his limited workload over the past three weeks, Roberts pulled Syndergaard after five innings and 80 pitches.
The Dodgers still haven’t had a starter throw a pitch in a sixth inning since Julio Urias went seven innings against the San Diego Padres last Saturday. In seven games since then, Dodgers relievers have thrown 38 innings, their starters only 27.
Yency Almonte and Justin Bruihl followed Syndergaard with scoreless innings. But Gonzalez gave up a tie-breaking three-run home run in the eighth that proved decisive.
“We were there,” Roberts said of the comeback momentum in the ninth. “We stressed him. Mookie went from 0-2 to 3-2 and, in our opinion, won that pitch to get Freddie up to potentially have the winning run on first base. We had two leverage guys left to go. We felt good where we were at.”
