Dodgers can’t clean up Yu Darvish’s mess in Game 3

The Dodgers got nothing out of their starting pitcher, played sloppy defense and didn’t have a run-scoring hit all night. Yet they somehow hung around, even bringing the tying run to the plate at one point, which probably made Game 3’s 5-3 loss to the Astros all the more frustrating.

Houston leads the World Series, two games to one.

Yu Darvish, after a month of great starts, was terrible on Friday. He had little to no command, especially of his slider, and the Astros made him pay. Darvish surrendered four runs on five hits in the second inning alone, including several hard hit balls.

Here were the exit velocities against Darvish in the second inning, per MLB Gameday:

• 104 mph (home run)
• 86 mph (double)
• 99 mph (single)
• 75 mph (single)
• 105 mph (line out to first base)
• 103 mph (sacrifice fly)
• 108 mph (double)

Darvish was done after just five outs, the shortest outing of his career, and his first start ever with no strikeouts. His four runs allowed matched his total over his previous five starts, covering 30⅔ innings.

Leaving trailing 4-0, his night could have been much worse, since there were runners on second and third with two outs as he left. But that’s where Kenta Maeda came in to escape the jam, continuing his excellent postseason.

Maeda got the Dodgers into the fifth, allowing only a single and a walk, and this postseason has pitched nine scoreless innings, allowing three total baserunners with nine strikeouts.

The Dodgers got one run back in the second inning, but that was it out of a bases-loaded, nobody out situation against Lance McCullers Jr.

Two more runs came in the sixth inning on a ground out and a wild pitch, but that was after the Astros tacked on an insurance run in the fifth inning on a throwing error by Tony Watson, one of two Dodgers errors on the night.

Cody Bellinger was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, pushing his World Series performance to 0-for-11 with seven strikeouts. Justin Turner doubled, but the Dodgers’ heart of the order — Corey Seager, Turner and Bellinger and Yasiel Puig — combined to go 2-for-15 with a walk in Game 3. And on one of those hits, Puig didn’t realize where the ball was -- nor did he appear to get help from first base coach George Lombard — and was subsequently thrown out after a delayed attempt to take second base.

Yet despite all that, despite Dave Roberts having to scramble after the short start by Darvish, the Dodgers found themselves with the tying run at the plate in the seventh inning, after a walk to Andre Ethier with two outs. But, Brad Peacock got Chris Taylor to ground out to end the threat, part of an excellent 3⅔ scoreless innings in relief by the Astros right-hander to get the save.

World Series Game 3 particulars

Home run: Yuli Gurriel (1)

WP - Lance McCullers (1-0): 5⅓ IP, 4 hits, 3 runs, 4 walks, 3 strikeouts

LP - Yu Darvish (2-1): 1⅔ IP, 6 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk

Sv - Brad Peacock (1): 3⅔ IP, 1 walk, 4 striksouts