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After a frustrating sweep in San Diego, the Brewers are back in the win column. Despite trailing late, Milwaukee rallied against struggling Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz in the ninth inning, scoring three runs to steal a 5-4 win and start their four-game series in Los Angeles on the right foot.

Both Brewers starter Shane Drohan and Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki had a relatively smooth go of it through the first few innings. Drohan gave up a 111.7 mph rocket of a line drive to Shohei Ohtani that came close to making it over the center-field fence, while Sasaki walked a couple of batters, but neither team came particularly close to scoring until the top of the fourth.

Gary Sánchez led off the fourth by lining a Sasaki splitter back up the middle and into center field for a base hit. After Jake Bauers flew out for the first out, Sasaki walked Andrew Vaughn on four straight balls. That brought up Christian Yelich, who hit a hard line drive into left field. Sánchez, not exactly known for his speed on the basepaths, had to stop at third, but the single loaded the bases with only one out.

Sasaki, who’s struggled with his control in the past, then completely lost the handle against Joey Ortiz, walking him on four straight pitches to bring home the first run of the game.

Up next was David Hamilton, but Sasaki still couldn’t get it together, walking him on five pitches — three of which weren’t particularly close to the strike zone — to give the Brewers another run. That brought up Jackson Chourio with two outs and the bases loaded, but Chourio bailed Sasaki out by quickly going down 0-2 before swinging at a splitter in the dirt for strike three. Still, the Brewers managed to take the lead and run Sasaki’s pitch count up to nearly 80 by the end of the fourth.

Drohan finally allowed a run in the fifth after Miguel Rojas walked, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on a Ben Rortvedt single. He came back out for the sixth but was clearly flagging, retiring Andy Pages on a hard line drive before walking Tommy Edman. Freddie Freeman then battled Drohan for nine pitches before successfully challenging a called strike three, resulting in a second straight walk.

With two on, one out, a one-run lead, and a tiring Drohan, it was time to make the call to the bullpen. Recently acquired Antonio Senzatela came in and struck out Teoscar Hernández on a foul tip for the second out. With two on and two out, Senzatela battled to a full count against Max Muncy, who turned on the sixth pitch of the at-bat — a 100 mph fastball — and crushed it over the fence in right-center field.

Just like that, the Brewers were down by two, and for a team coming off a series in which the offense struggled to produce big innings, it may have felt to the more pessimistic of fans like the game was already over.

It wasn’t.

DL Hall retired six straight batters in the seventh and eighth innings, but Milwaukee couldn’t score either, so the score remained 4-2 going into the top of the ninth. Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz, who’s been getting hit around since returning from the injured list in late July, came in to try to slam the door on the Brewers.

Leading off against Díaz was William Contreras, who got caught looking at strike three for the first out. Milwaukee was down to its final two outs, but Ortiz and Hamilton both came through in the clutch, lining singles through the infield to put runners on the corners. Up next was Chourio, who worked the count full before swinging at a slider half a foot off the plate. He managed to get enough of it off the end of the bat to poke it into shallow right-center for a base hit, scoring Ortiz and putting the tying run, Hamilton, on third.

Garrett Mitchell took Díaz’s next pitch for a strike, then swung at the second pitch — a slider in almost the exact same location — and sent it into right field for the Brewers’ fourth straight single, scoring Hamilton to tie the game.

Up next was Sánchez, who struck out on a called strike three that he challenged unsuccessfully. With two outs and the game still tied, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts opted to go to his bullpen, calling on lefty Alex Vesia to face Jake Bauers. Bauers hit a ground ball through the right side that found a gap and trickled into right field for a single, scoring Chourio to put the Brewers ahead 5-4.

Bauers then stole second and Andrew Vaughn worked a walk to load the bases, but Christian Yelich grounded out — albeit on a hard-hit ball — to end the inning.

In what had been a fairly dramatic game, the bottom of the ninth was anticlimactic, which is exactly what the Brewers want to see from their closer. Trevor Megill came in and retired Mookie Betts, Muncy, and Kyle Tucker in order to secure the first victory of the road trip. For a team that lost a couple of fairly heartbreaking games in San Diego, it has to feel good to come away with a comeback victory over a stacked Dodgers team. Good pitching and timely hitting will always be a recipe for success.

Robert Gasser will be on the mound tomorrow opposite Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Dodgers. It’s another West Coast night game, with first pitch set for 9:10 p.m. CT.

LOS ANGELES — The sound of trumpets are now the sound of alarm for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Oh, dear. Here comes closer Edwin Diaz again.

The pain and suffering continued Thursday night, Aug. 13 when he blew his third save since last week and the Dodgers lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 in the first game of a crucial, four-game series.

Diaz entered in the bottom of the ninth to the sound of the signature trumpets with the Dodgers leading 4-2 thanks to Max Muncy’s pinch hit, three-run homer in the bottom of the sixth.

But Diaz heard loud boos from the crowd when he neutralized Muncy’s heroics. He left the field with two outs, the score tied 4-4 and though his status as the Dodgers’ closer appears to still be secure, Diaz is undeniably feeling the heat from the fans.

Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia allowed the final run, but the Dodgers losing this night belonged to Diaz.

The second pitch Edwin Díaz threw Thursday night sailed above the strike zone, at about eye-height on Milwaukee’s William Contreras. It was an early indicator that the Dodgers closer was about to have a brutal ninth inning.

By the end of his third blown save in four appearances, even Díaz wasn’t sure what his role would be going forward.

“Now I’ve just got to see what they want to do,” he said after the Dodgers’ 5-4 loss to the Brewers. “I want to do the best thing for the team. At the end of the day, if they give me the ball in the ninth I will try to do my job. If they give me the ball in another inning, I will try to do my job. Got to get better, be consistent.”

Manager Dave Roberts, however, as he looked at the state of his bullpen, wasn’t ready to take the closer title from Díaz.

“Give me another option,” Roberts said. “To be quite honest, none of those guys really are throwing the baseball great. So that’s just kind of the way it is.”

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The series opener between the Dodgers and Brewers, two of the top teams in the National League, saw Roki Sasaki give up just two runs over six innings despite battling command issues. It included a record-setting go-ahead home run from Max Muncy, No. 131 at Dodger Stadium, breaking a tie with Eric Karros for the most all-time at Chavez Ravine.

Then Díaz, who has been working through an evolving set of issues since returning from the injured list (arthroscopic elbow surgery) a couple weeks ago, took over with a two-run lead. And the game went sideways.

The Dodgers (73-49) fell two games back of the Brewers (75-47) and half a game behind the Braves (73-48).

“A loss is a loss, but there’s certain losses that are more costly,” Roberts said. “And when you use five relievers and you lose a game, that’s costly.”

Though Díaz’s command issues flared early, he struck out Contreras to begin the inning. Then he gave up four consecutive singles.

“I think my fastball command today — I was throwing strikes, but right in the middle,” Díaz said. “Every big league hitter can hit it right in the middle, [even if you] throw 200 miles an hour. I’ve got to get better at that.”

Milwaukee’s Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton both hit center-cut fastballs to put runners on the corners for the top of the order.

Then Jackson Chourio’s and Garrett Mitchell’s RBI singles — to cut the Dodgers lead to one run and to tie the score, respectively — came on sliders. That was the pitch Díaz struggled to get a feel for in Arizona last weekend.

“I think it was better today,” he said. “I think I made good ones. When you miss your fastball in the middle, they see better pitches.”

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Díaz then struck out right-handed hitting Gary Sánchez on three pitches, but Roberts had seen enough. He turned to left-hander Alex Vesia.

With two outs and runners on first and second, Vesia got Jake Bauers to hit a ground ball to the right side of the field, but it found a hole to drive in the go-ahead run. And the Dodgers offense didn’t counter in the bottom of the ninth.

“It’s frustrating because I know my ability,” said Díaz, who has an 11.57 ERA since joining the Dodgers last offseason on a three-year, $69-million deal. “I know what I can do on the mound. To not be able to do it sucks. I’ve just got to come tomorrow and try to keep getting better.”

The Dodgers’ bullpen situation has flipped dramatically since his return from injury. Less than three weeks ago, Roberts said his high-leverage relievers made up “as big a trust tree as we’ve had in quite some time.”

When pressed Thursday on why he planned to stick with Díaz in save situations, Roberts’ tone had changed.

“Who’s the other option?” Roberts said. “You look back at the last week, and guys have struggled. ... Everyone’s got a role, they all have jobs to do, and they all have to do their job. That’s it.”

One factor has been health. Brock Stewart (right shoulder discomfort) and Will Klein (right elbow loose bodies) have been placed on the IL since Roberts’ “trust tree” comments.

Then there’s the issue of performance.

Scott (2.25 ERA, 16 saves), who served as the closer in Díaz’ three-month absence, has been dealing with inconsistent velocity. But he has three straight holds. On Thursday, he faced only Christian Yelich, who hit a long fly ball into the left-field corner, but Kiké Hernández made the catch before running into the wall.

Vesia surrendered two runs in ⅔ of an inning against the Chicago Cubs on Aug. 4, but he had held opponents hitless with three walks over three appearances before facing Milwaukee.

Evan Phillips seemed to have righted the ship after a rocky return from the IL, but he gave up two earned runs in ⅓ of an inning Tuesday.

What about taking a closer-by-committee approach?

“We’ve got to get other guys on track to even have that be even a valid conversation, to be honest with you,” Roberts said.

So, Díaz will continue working to regain his effectiveness on the mound, without changing roles.

“He’s got to find his way,” Roberts said. “And he’s got to have a runway to find his way. But then it gets to a point where — I’m not there yet, but ... I’m betting on the fact that the stuff will kind of right, and he’ll figure it out.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

With no power to speak of—finishing the game with nothing but singles in their 10 hits—the Brewers took advantage of Edwin Díaz’s struggles to mount a late comeback and beat the Dodgers 5-4 in one of these teams’ most excruciating losses of the season.

While Roki Sasaki has never been confused with a starter who relentlessly pounds the zone, even by his standards, this performance against the Brewers came with worse command than he was comfortable with. Through his first five frames, Sasaki walked the same number of batters as he had innings. Although his ability to pitch out of trouble to prevent a blowup should be applauded, there was probably a healthy contribution from a Brewers offense that couldn’t generate any power against him.

Both runs that Sasaki allowed came in the third inning, when control of the baseball eluded him to the point of walking three batters in a single frame. Joey Ortiz and David Hamilton came up to the plate with one out and the bases loaded, and each walked in a run, receiving a combined single strike in their respective plate appearances.

With the Dodgers silent early on against lefty Shane Drohan, they counted on the struggles of the Brewers’ stars to stay in this game. Firstly, in that third inning, the damage to Sasaki could’ve been worse, but amidst his struggles, the Dodgers starter rather easily punched out William Contreras with the bases loaded before walking in the two runs.

Eric Karros mentioned in the Dodgers broadcast that through this cold stretch with the bat, Contreras has seen the defensive side of his game also falter, and that came into play for the Dodgers’ first run. With a runner at second and two outs, Ben Rortvedt knocked a single into left field, and even with Shohei Ohtani coming up to hit, Miguel Rojas got the aggressive send sign. Rojas should’ve been out at the plate after Jackson Chourio made a good throw, but Contreras hurried the tag and couldn’t hold on to the ball; this allowed the Dodgers to score their first run and make it a 2-1 matchup in the fifth.

The Brewers’ most accomplished player and in the middle of a lousy campaign, Christian Yelich, much like Contreras, also helped out Sasaki in this game. Far from his best form, Sasaki was sent out there for the sixth to try to squeeze out one more inning that started with Andrew Vaughn reaching safely for the third straight time. Yelich was next, and with the Brewers’ last chance to do damage before the Dodgers went to the bullpen, their star left-handed hitter grounded into an easy double play. Eventually, Sasaki completed the six innings of two-run baseball, a great line given the context of this performance.

Milwaukee also tried to extend their starter to complete six full innings, a decision that would come back to haunt them with the Dodgers turning this game around in the sixth. Refusing to miss time after his injury scare on Wednesday, Freddie Freeman delivered a magnificent at-bat, overcoming a 0-2 count to earn a nine-pitch walk on an overturned 3-2 strike call. Freeman joined Tommy Edman, who also had walked to lead off the inning, on the basepaths, and that was enough for Pat Murphy to turn to Antonio Senzatela in the bullpen.

Pinch-hitting for Miguel Rojas with two outs, Max Muncy did what he has done many times recently, hitting a clutch homer to hand the Dodgers the lead. This one was a three-run shot, simply destroying a high heater from the former Rockies starter-turned-relief weapon for the Brew Crew.

The saying that when it rains, it pours certainly applied to Yelich, as he was without luck on his side late in this one. Tanner Scott was brought in relief to face the former MVP with one on and two out in the eighth. Representing the tying run, Yelich got a hold of one down the left field line that very nearly went out but was ultimately caught by Kiké Hernández right at the wall.

What’s further impressive about that defensive play is that Kiké had already made a good one at third earlier in the game. And as long as he is providing this type of versatility with defensive contributions all over, the team will make do without his offensive production.

That minor scare with Scott turned out to be a preview of what was to come in the ninth. In a tightly contested matchup, a team functioning like a well-oiled machine cannot afford to have one of its integral pieces struggling in the manner that Edwin Díaz has, ultimately leading to a blown save in the ninth. Blowup outings here and there can be explained, but what’s baffling about Díaz right now, as he allowed four straight hits (all singles) to give up the lead, is that the stuff just isn’t performing as you’d expect. Too often he located the pitch well and didn’t get the result you’d assume, like in this Chourio RBI single.

Díaz blew the save and left a mess for Alex Vesia with two on and two out against Jake Bauers. Vesia threw a 1-2 slider that didn’t break enough, and Bauers squeezed it past the infield for an RBI single to give the Brewers the 5-4 lead. In typical Brewers fashion, they came back in this one with nothing but singles.

Game particulars

• Home run— Max Muncy (23)
• WP—DL Hall (2-0): 2 IP, 3 strikeouts
• LP— Edwin Díaz (2-2): 0.2 IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 2 strikeouts
• SV— Trevor Megill (22): 1 IP, 1 strikeout

Up next

Phenomenal this season and coming off 5.2 scoreless innings in a low-scoring win against the Diamondbacks, Yoshinobu Yamamoto will lead the Dodgers against the Brewers on Friday night, aiming to pitch back-to-back scoreless games for the first time this season. Milwaukee will send yet another one of their young starters in Robert Gasser. The first pitch comes your way at 7:10 p.m. (PT).

The Texas Rangers scored zero runs but the Anaheim Angels scored seven runs.

I hadn’t thought much about the Rangers all day. I hadn’t even really paid attention to the lineup when I was putting up the GDT. BZZR is finally on Roku (I can finally uninstall Poob!) so I got that working a few minutes before first pitch.

As soon as the game loaded up, Rangers Sports Network was showing a graphic featuring tonight’s lineup. I did a double take as my eyes darted to the bottom of the order and I saw that Nicky Lopez was Texas’ No. 7 hitter.

It dawned on me then that, despite being in the race for a division title in potentially the worst division since the strike of ‘94 seemingly rescued us from Texas’ first ever division title coming with a below .500 record, and coming into the night holding an American League Wild Card spot, the Rangers aren’t even that much better than the Angels.

Not when Nicky Lopez is batting seventh. Not when Austin Wynns is making another start for this club and he isn’t even the No. 9 hitter.

Not when Jacob deGrom can’t even go more than two innings because he’s hurt or really wishing he’d taken that trade to Atlanta. Not when the club can only muster two hits through the first six innings and just five all night, none for extra bases. Not when the team won’t use a challenge on a pitch fully in the strike zone. Not when a bases loaded comebacker to the mound doesn’t turn into an out.

The Rangers went 1-6 against the Angels in Anaheim this season. They’ve gone 3-7 against them in total. They will have a losing record against them this year. There’s only like 40 games left this season and victories against the Rangers have contributed to like 15% of Anaheim’s entire win total.

The Angels are pretty bad — they had the worst record in baseball until winning tonight — but sitting here in mid-August, the Rangers aren’t much better if they are at all.

Player of the Game: The Roku feed was pretty smooth.

Up Next: The Rangers fly up to Sacramento for the next round of shameful beatings beginning in the middle of the night tomorrow night.

The Dodgers couldn’t hold onto a late lead on Thursday night against the Milwaukee Brewers.

But with a history-making swing, Max Muncy at least gave one.

Summoned from the bench for a pinch-hit at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Dodgers’ veteran third baseman belted a towering three-run, go-ahead homer off Milwaukee right-handed reliever Antonio Senzatela.

It would only go down as a footnote on the night, with the Dodgers losing 5-4 after Edwin Díaz’s three-run blown save in the top of the ninth.

In franchise’s record books, however, the drive catapulted Muncy to the top of a notable list.

With the 131st home run of his career at Dodger Stadium, Muncy passed retired star slugger Eric Karros for most by a single player in the ballpark’s 65-year history.

“You did it Munce! You did it!,” said Karros, who was serendipitously calling the game on the team’s SportsNet LA broadcast.

“What a career. You just can’t imagine, especially if you’re Max Muncy, you can’t imagine that this is how things would end up.”

Indeed, Muncy would have once been an unthinkable candidate to become Dodger Stadium’s home run king, having joined the team on a minor-league contract a decade ago before blossoming into an unexpected star.

Yet, over his Dodgers career, his power has remained consistent –– there through injuries and positional changes and mechanical struggles that have led to more than a down seasons overall for the three-time All-Star.

“Definitely not a spot I ever thought I’d be in,” he said earlier this year.

Muncy had been chasing down Karros’ record for most of this season, in which the 35-year-old has had a resurgent campaign that earned him a trip back to the Midsummer Classic.

With 23 long balls, Muncy trails only Shohei Ohtani for most on the team. He is also batting above .250 for the first time since 2019, and on the verge of recording his most wins above replacement (he entered Thursday at 3.4, according to Baseball-Reference) since 2021.

Despite that, eclipsing Karros’ mark had required patience.

Muncy sat one homer off the record for a stretch of 59 home plate appearances in July, before finally tying it on July 29.

Since then, he had hit only one more big fly (during a road trip at Wrigley Field earlier this month) while becoming one of several Dodgers hitters to endure a midsummer slump.

Things have gone better on this homestand, however.

With Thursday’s blast –– which came on the sixth pitch of an at-bat that saw Muncy just miss an earlier home run on a fly ball that sailed wide of the right-field foul pole –– Muncy is hitting 4-for-12 this week with seven RBIs.

Tim Anderson ended the first Field of Dreams game with a two-run, walk-off shot that magically disappeared into the right-field corn, and for five years, that has been the sentimental argument for playing baseball in Iowa. Nothing since has come close to that drama.

Thursday night at least they tried.

MLB brought out 26 Hall of Famers to appear out of the corn stalks, the most at one game since the 2008 All-Star Game. Players from both teams read the monologue from the movie reminding everyone of how baseball is the constant through the years in America. Brand-new Hall of Famers Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent threw out the first pitches to Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez and Joe Mauer.

All of it happened in a new, permanent ballpark that seated 8,000 Thursday night.

Dyersville has about 4,500 people living there. Thursday night close to twice that many were at the game on the outskirts of downtown, waxing poetic about the town's new tourist attraction.

The game started out with drama, Kyle Schwarber launching the third pitch of the game into the cornfield. The Twins couldn't keep up as Schwarber hit two homers and Brandon Marsh had one and Philadelphia won 7-1.

Here is who came out of Dyersville Thursday night winners and who left as losers.

Winners

Kyle Schwarber

His first at-bat ended up with a 369-foot, lead-off home run. In the fourth inning he did it again with a little help from Twins right fielder Luke Keaschall, who had it bounce off his glove and into the corn. Aaron Judge is the only other player to homer twice in this game. Judge did it in 2021 and left as a loser. Schwarber left as the game MVP, rewarded with a hot dog and cob of corn.

Brandon Marsh

He reached base four times, going 2-for-2 with two walks, stole a base and drove in two runs. His seventh-inning home run off Travis Adams was his 17th of the season, a career high with 40 games still to play.

Aaron Nola

Nola went five innings, holding the Twins to one run and he struck out a season-high nine. He came in 3-9 with a 5.47 ERA in a season that has been a grind.