The Dodgers have won 71 games since Tyler Glasnow earned his last victory.
That was March 31, 152 days ago. The season was six games old then. No other pitcher with at least 13 major league starts has gone longer without a win this season.
Yet Glasnow was never deserving of a better fate than he was Saturday, when he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and a shutout into the seventh, only to wind up with the loss when the Dodgers fell 6-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
With the Padres beating the Minnesota Twins, the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West is back at one game.
It’s not as if Glasnow has pitched poorly. In one start he didn’t yield a run and in four others he gave up just one.
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He didn’t get the win in any of those games — and that’s starting to get old.
“I know our team will will come back and play better,” said Glasnow, easily the best pitcher in baseball with a 1-3 record. “But it's frustrating right now.”
In four of his first 13 starts, the Dodgers (77-59) didn’t score a run behind him. So while his 2.45 earned-run average and six earned runs given up in four July appearances led the team’s starters, all he had was a loss and three no decisions to show for it.
He was almost as good in August — when his record was 0-2.
“He can only do what he can do,” manager Dave Roberts said. “So, yeah, if you're not scoring runs, it certainly decreases your margin. But the pitcher's got to do what he's got to do. The defense has got to do what they've got to do, and then the offense has got to do what they’ve got to do.”
Only one of those three things happened Saturday, when Glasnow retired the first 10 batters on just 39 pitches, striking out four.
The spell was broken with one out in the fourth when Glasnow hit Ketel Marte with a 1-1 pitch. He escaped the inning without further damage and with the no-hitter intact.
“I was aware of it, yeah,” he said of the no-hitter.
Arizona’s Eduardo Rodriguez (6-8) was nearly as stingy, however, giving up just two hits through four innings, although he did walk two.
Rodriguez, who started the night with a 5.67 ERA, is the fourth starter with an ERA over 5.00 the Dodgers have faced in their past eight games. They have lost all four games, scoring one run in 24 innings combined against the four pitchers.
“Every day I write the lineup down and I feel good about the guys that we're running out there. And you know it comes to having a plan and when you have an opportunity to take advantage, you have to do your job,” Roberts said.
“I still feel like our guys are better but all that matters is how you perform.”
The Dodgers nearly got to Rodriguez in the fifth inning when Kiké Hernández led off with a hard grounder that got by third baseman Blaze Alexander for a single. Miguel Rojas then sent him to third with a double and Shohei Ohtani followed with what should have been a sacrifice fly to left.
The throw from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was off line but when Hernández didn’t slide, catcher Gabriel Moreno was able to retrieve the ball and tag the runner to complete the double play. After a long review, the call by plate umpire Dan Bellino was affirmed.
Hernández, who had his back to Gurriel, said he looked for on-deck hitter Mookie Betts for help, but Betts was out of position.
“I didn't see Mookie, and I didn't slide,” he said. “I was out. I thought I was safe.”
That was just one of a number of sloppy mistakes made by the Dodgers, who had two runners thrown out on the bases and made two fielding errors.
“Tonight, there was a lot of things that I'm not going to get into that just lends itself to really uncharacteristic lack of focus,” a visibly frustrated Roberts said. “There were some things, whether it's an at-bat here or there, whether it's a play here or there, that [were] just mistakes and execution that just can't happen.
“We gave it away. We beat ourselves. So, yeah, this is this a tough one. I just really can't excuse it.”
Glasnow, meanwhile, lost his no-hitter on Ildemaro Vargas’ infield single in the sixth and his shutout on Corbin Carroll’s home run in the seventh — after which his night spiraled out of control.
Gurriel followed with a sinking liner to center that Andy Pages kicked away for a double and when Teoscar Hernández was unable to squeeze Alexander’s long drive at the wall in right-center, which went for another double, the Diamondbacks (68-69) had runners on second and third with no outs.
Moreno drove Gurriel in on a fly ball to center and Alexander followed him home when Pages’ throw from center skipped away from Kiké Hernández at third to make it 3-0.
Glasnow, who didn’t come out for the eighth, threw 100 pitches in a season-high seven innings, striking out six. The Dodgers got him a run — the first they’ve scored for him in two starts and 11 innings — thanks to an RBI single by Betts. But Smith flew out to center to end the inning.
The Dodgers were one for eight with runners in scoring position Saturday, leaving eight runners on base.
Arizona then put the game away in the ninth, reaching reliever Kirby Yates for three runs on a single, a two-out walk and Vargas’ second homer of the season, a 423-foot bomb to right-center.
“This is a great opportunity that we have, and you’ve got to embrace it,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to want to get out there. You’ve got to have fun competing. And it just seems like the last couple nights, at some points it was an unrecognizable ballclub.
“We’ve got to play better. We do.”
Etc.
Monday is the Dodgers’ second off day in less than a week so manager Dave Roberts plans to skip Emmet Sheehan’s spot in the rotation. Sheehan shut out the Reds on two hits in a career-best seven innings in his last outing. The right-hander could pitch out of the bullpen Sunday, but Roberts will open the team’s six-game road trip to Pittsburgh and Baltimore with Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani.
Reliever Michael Kopech, who has spent most of the season on the injured list with knee and shoulder issues, will accompany the team on its East Coast road trip and could be activated Tuesday. Brock Stewart, sidelined since Aug. 12 with shoulder inflammation, has resumed throwing after getting a cortisone shot.
Kyle Hurt, who pitched in four games over the past two seasons before undergoing surgery to repair a ligament in his right elbow last July, faced live hitters in a multi-inning simulated game Saturday and will pitch at Oklahoma City in September. “It’s been a long 13 months. I’m very excited to be back,” said Hurt, 27.
Roberts did not rule out a bullpen role for Hurt down the stretch.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
