SAN FRANCISCO -- The Dodgers showed the kind of fight at the plate that had been lacking in recent days. But they couldn't quite raise themselves out of the hole they had been digging for the past week.
The Dodgers lost their seventh game in a row on Friday night at Oracle Park, falling 8-7 to the Giants. It marked their longest losing streak since September 2017, when they dropped 11 straight games.
Here are three takeaways from the loss that resulted in L.A.'s worst skid in nearly eight years:
Bats waking up
Through the first six games of the losing streak, the Dodgers were slumping badly at the plate. They were outscored 44-10, plating two runs or fewer in five of the six games. The bats came alive in the series opener, but not enough to put them over the top.
Shohei Ohtani got the Dodgers on the board with a splash, slugging a two-run shot -- his NL-leading 32nd homer -- into McCovey Cove in the third inning to put his team ahead, 2-1. But Dustin May lost his command in the innings that followed, and he was chased from the game with two outs in the fifth, when the Giants surged to a six-run lead.
The Giants tagged May for seven runs, and they got another off Anthony Banda. But the Dodgers got themselves back in the game quickly, plating four runs in the sixth off a Teoscar Hernández two-run double and a Michael Conforto two-run homer. They inched within one run when Mookie Betts hit a one-out triple and scored on a Will Smith RBI single in the seventh.
L.A. had the tying and go-ahead runs on base with one out for Smith in the top of the ninth, but the backstop grounded into a double play to end the game.
"We just strung some hits together, something we haven't done in a while," Betts said. "Obviously, I know it sucks, but you have to try to take some positive out of it. At least we battled back."
Insurmountable deficit
May is not the only Dodgers pitcher to be hit hard during the losing streak. Some individual season-worst pitching performances have taken place during the streak:
- Ben Casparius gave up a career-high-tying six runs in three innings before Noah Davis surrendered 10 runs in one inning on July 4 against the Astros.
- Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed five runs and didn't make it out of the first inning on Monday in Milwaukee, the shortest outing of his Major Leaguer career.
- May's seven runs allowed on Friday tied his career high, which he set earlier this season on April 22 at Wrigley Field.
Every starting pitcher wants to put his team in a position to win, regardless of the situation. May said the Dodgers' downturn did not put him under any additional pressure.
“I mean, I try to do that every time I go out, whether we’re on a losing streak or winning streak. I’m going to give you my best foot forward," May said. "And it just wasn’t very good.”
Wild, wild West
When the Dodgers lost 11 in a row in 2017, they still went on to win 104 games … and lead the division by 11 games at season's end. They had a 14 1/2-game lead when that losing streak began.
This year's NL West should be more tightly contested. The Dodgers led by nine games after their most recent win on July 3, but their lead has dwindled to four games over the Giants, with the Padres a half-game behind in third.
Rather than head into the All-Star break with a commanding lead in the division, the Dodgers have given themselves some work to do. There's plenty of time to right the ship, and even though the swoon is still ongoing, the Dodgers are hoping to build on the encouraging signs they saw in their latest loss.
"It’s tough," manager Dave Roberts said. "But I still like the guys we run out there. It’s just kind of putting things together. I think any manager will say the same thing. To win a big league ballgame is tough. But you’ve still got to pitch well. You’ve got to catch it and you’ve got to take good at-bats. If all three of those things don’t line up in one night, it’s hard to get a win."