One frustrating week after sweep of Padres, Dodgers back in 2nd in West

SAN DIEGO -- Hits have been hard to come by for the Dodgers these past couple of days at Petco Park.

After managing only a trio of knocks in the series opener, Los Angeles' bats picked up just two hits in Saturday night's 5-1 loss, moving the Padres ahead by a game in the NL West standings.

Last weekend, the Dodgers entered their series against the Padres in second place and pulled off a sweep to end it alone in first. Since then, they have gone on to split four games against the MLB-worst Rockies and drop the first two against their primary competition in the division.

While it comes as somewhat of a surprise to the Dodgers that last weekend's sweep hasn't translated into momentum, they maintain that they didn't play their best baseball against the Padres then, either.

"If you look at last week, there were some things that [were] self-inflicted on those guys' parts," manager Dave Roberts said. "We got gifted some things, too. The result was great, but under the hood, offensively, I still think that there's some things that we can get better at."

San Diego's starting pitching has set the tone this weekend. One night after Yu Darvish tossed six innings of one-hit ball, Nestor Cortes followed suit by taking a perfect-game bid into the sixth inning. Miguel Rojas singled with one out to break it up, but Cortes didn't allow the Dodgers to build any momentum from finally seeing one fall, getting Buddy Kennedy and Shohei Ohtani to fly out to wrap a scoreless outing.

It marked the first time that opposing starters had tossed six or more innings with one or no hits allowed against the Dodgers in back-to-back games since 1906, when the Cardinals' Stoney McGlynn and the Cubs' Jack Pfiester pulled off the feat on consecutive days.

Alex Freeland, whose first big league home run was the Dodgers' lone hit off Darvish on Friday, went deep for the second night in a row with a pinch-hit solo shot off righty reliever Jeremiah Estrada in the eighth. The rookie is the only Dodger to drive in a run in the first two games of the series.

"We can't really let these games [get] away from us just getting one hit," Rojas said. "I know it's hard. I know hitting is the hardest thing to do. But I feel like we need to continue to get better if we want to get to where we want to be, which is winning the division and winning the World Series. As an offense, we've got to start making a little bit better adjustments in-game."

On the opposing side, the Padres only notched three hits themselves. But they took advantage of poor command from Tyler Glasnow, who walked four batters. Two of those free passes came in the fourth inning, when San Diego loaded the bases with nobody out and cashed in on a Ramón Laureano two-run single and a Xander Bogaerts sacrifice fly.

"If I go out and pitch a good game," Glasnow said, "we end up winning a game where I keep it closer. So I think tonight, especially, is on me.”

Regardless of who feels responsible on any given night, the Dodgers have been clear on one thing: If they want to successfully defend their title, something needs to change.

This series, the paltry offense has been the glaring weakness. That this lineup is still struggling to find its footing in late August is a surprise, but to Roberts, it's not about finding individual mechanical fixes. It's about finding ways to win as a team.

Following Saturday's loss, Roberts heard that sentiment expressed through conversations in the clubhouse. He does not believe a team meeting will be necessary to get the message across, given the Dodgers' recent history of winning and the caliber of their veteran players.

"It's gonna change," Roberts said. "It'll change."

For the Dodgers, that starts with not letting the opposing starter shut them down. It's about attacking not only as individuals, but as a team, and maintaining that pressure until the final out.

"We have to make an adjustment in-game that's going to put us in a best position to get starters out of the game," Rojas said. "Not just because the other manager wants to take him out of there. We need to force them out of the game. We need to start doing a better job of that."