PITTSBURGH — Tyler Glasnow has been putting up zeroes when he’s on the mound – for the wrong team.
Glasnow held the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run on three hits over six innings Tuesday night. But for the fifth consecutive start, the Dodgers did not score a run during his time in the game on their way to being shut out and losing to the Pirates, 1-0.
The Dodgers have not scored with Glasnow on the mound since his May 4 start against the Atlanta Braves. He has pitched 30 innings since then.
“I didn’t know,” Glasnow said of the unsupportive offense. “But baseball is hard. I mean, beginning of the year, I feel like every time I pitched, it was like 10 runs. It just kind of has to even itself out.”
Baseball was particularly hard for the Dodgers’ offense once it had runners on base. They were 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position in Tuesday’s loss.
“You get a guy on second base a couple times and we couldn’t move him over to create that run-scoring situation,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When you’re playing in tight ballgames, those things come to light.”
It happened repeatedly against the Pirates.
Rookie right-hander Jared Jones announced his presence with authority Tuesday. Ten of the 17 pitches he threw in the first inning were clocked at either 100 or 101 mph. His 100th pitch – a fastball to strike out Jason Heyward to end the sixth inning – hit 99 mph.
The former La Mirada High star struck out six in his six scoreless innings, averaging 98.4 mph on that fastball and holding the Dodgers to just three hits.
But the Dodgers had plenty of chances to break through against the rookie.
Freddie Freeman singled with two outs in the first inning and went to third on Will Smith’s double to left-center field. Teoscar Hernandez stranded them both when he grounded out to third base.
Freeman doubled to center with two outs in the third inning and Smith was hit by a pitch. But Hernandez again stranded them, flying out 374 feet to the warning track in left.
Jason Heyward led off the fourth with a walk and made it to third base but went no farther. Gavin Lux led off the seventh with a double off Pirates reliever Colin Holderman. The next three Dodgers batters failed to advance him.
Against veteran reliever Aroldis Chapman in the eighth, Shohei Ohtani led off with a single (just his second hit in his past 13 at-bats), went to second on a walk of Smith then tagged and went to third on Hernandez’s fly out – this one hit 107.2 mph off the bat and hauled in 380 feet away by center fielder Jack Suwinski. But pinch-hitter Andy Pages struck out to end the inning.
“Hit the ball hard. But no luck. Twice, to the warning track,” Hernandez said of his at-bats. “It’s something that I don’t control, other than trying to hit the ball the way I hit it. It just happens. It’s baseball. Just try to get going, try harder.”
The “it’s baseball” refrain has become a familiar one in post-game locker rooms as the Dodgers’ offense has sputtered over the past few weeks.
“I mean, there’s been a couple games where we have a lot of guys on base and we hit the ball right at people,” Hernandez said. “But like I said, it’s part of the season, it’s gonna happen. It’s happening for us the last week and a half. We just have to keep going, keep working hard.”
It’s been longer than a week and a half.
The Dodgers have been slipping in the clutch for awhile now. Over their past 18 games (a 9-9 split), they have batted .184 (27 for 147) with runners in scoring position. Not coincidentally, they have averaged just 3.39 runs per game during that stretch.
Also not a coincidence – both Mookie Betts and Ohtani have slowed down considerably from their MVP paces in the past two weeks.
Since May 16, Betts is batting .219 (14 for 64) and has scored just six runs and driven in four in 16 games. Over that same stretch, Ohtani is batting .197 (12 for 61).
“Sometimes you can point to Mookie as the straw that stirs the drink. And also Shohei when he’s going well, it seems like our offense takes off,” Roberts said. “Those two guys at the top are a big part of what we do. They’re just kind of not where they need to be right now.”
Glasnow did his part against the Pirates on Tuesday, striking out nine over six innings. But one of the three hits he allowed was a solo home run by Jack Suwinski in the third inning.
In 14 career games against the Dodgers, Suwinski is 14 for 44 (.318) with five home runs and three doubles.
“It was 3-2, he was hunting heater and put a good swing on it,” Roberts said of Suwinski’s homer. “That was the difference in the ballgame.”