An ineffective Kenta Maeda and quiet bats lead to 5-2 loss against Brewers

Kenta Maeda didn’t have his best stuff tonight and Brewers’ pitching shutdown the Dodgers’ bats in a 5-2 loss Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

Maeda got into trouble early in his outing, allowing four hits to the first four Brewer hitters. Christian Yelich, fresh of his National League Player of the Week honors, led of with a double. Three consecutive singles plated him to give Milwaukee a 1-0 lead. Meada threw 34 pitches in a sign of bad things to come for the right-hander.

In the bottom half, Joc Pederson led off with a single, but the Dodgers were retired in order after that, which included Manny Machado making his Dodger Stadium debut. He struck out against Brewers’ starter Freddy Peralta.

After the first inning ended, there was a power surge that caused the stadium lights to go out.

Despite the 23-minute delay, Maeda retired the Brewers in order in the second. The Dodgers went quietly in the bottom half.

In the third inning, Maeda got into trouble again. After getting two relatively quick outs, he issued a walk to Travis Shaw and a seeing-eye single to Ryan Braun. That brought up Eric Thames and his beefy arms. He drove a Maeda fastball over the wall in left-center field to put the Brewers up 4-0.

The Dodgers answered in the bottom of the third inning. Machado walked and Muncy tripled him in to get the Dodgers on the board.

But the Los Angeles offense would go dormant for almost the entire rest of the game.

Maeda’s night was done after 102 pitches: 4 ²⁄₃ IP, 7 H, 4 R/ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 1 HR. He wasn’t sharp and his changeup was missing in action tonight.

The Dodger bullpen was solid. Dylan Floro, Scott Alexander, Pedro Baez and Daniel Hudson combined for 4 ¹⁄₃ innings of one-run ball.

After Peralta went out after four innings, the Dodger bats were nearly silenced in five innings by the Brewers’ bullpen quartet of Josh Hader (ugh), Joakim Soria, Jeremy Jeffress and Corey Knebel. Machado got his first Dodger Stadium home run by launching a rocket off Knebel to make it a 5-2 game, and the eventual final score.

If you’re looking for a spot of good news, Julio Urias hit 94 MPH in a rehab appearance in Arizona tonight. He will pitch in the majors this season. It’s just a question of when and how much.

The Dodgers fall to 59-48 with the loss. They’re still 0.5 games up on the Diamondbacks because the Rangers beat Arizona tonight. Walker Buehler (4-3, 3.92 ERA) takes the hill tomorrow for the Dodgers. He’ll square off against Wade Miley (1-1, 2.01 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. Pacific time.