Dodgers drubbed by Blue Jays in series finale

After a physically and emotionally draining win on Tuesday night, the Dodgers came out a little flat on Wednesday, losing big to the Blue Jays, 8-1, and dropping their first series since before the All-Star break.

Yusei Kikuchi out-dueled Tony Gonsolin, and the Jays added three insurance runs off the Dodgers’ bullpen, to thoroughly shut the door on any potential late rallies.

The veteran left-hander was pretty impressive on the rubber match of this series, looking in control for his entire outing, even when the Dodgers threatened.

Strictly looking at the scoreboard, the nine baserunners allowed over six innings, would indicate that the Dodgers had plenty of opportunities to do damage, and while that is true in a way, Kikuchi certainly looked more dominant than that.

In fact, the Jays’ starter allowed only two hard-hit balls throughout his whole game, and really raised his game in big spots, securing his first four punchouts with men on base.

Across his entire outing, Kikuchi struck out eight, with the highlight probably coming in the first inning. After allowing back-to-back hits to Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman, Kikuchi struck out both J.D. Martinez, and Chris Taylor, before getting Max Muncy to end the frame.

What could’ve been easily a scoring inning for the Dodgers to take the early lead, after last night’s thrilling win, became the stepping stone into a pretty good outing for the Jays’ starter.

A narrative switch in Gonsolin’s final inning

The Dodgers’ starter had a notoriously great start to his season, in terms of putting forth his best work in the most crucial spots, allowing only three hits over 36 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

One of the reasons behind this south turn as of late is the opponent’s improvements in that aspect. And for much of this afternoon, Gonsolin looked set to regain some of that early-season form, but a hanging splitter did him in.

The Jays got on the board with runs in the second, and third, and despite nearing 100-pitches towards the end of the fifth, and allowing nine baserunners, Gonsolin got very close o completing five, with a respectable two earned runs.

However, with a couple of men on, in a two-strike count, the right-hander looked to bury a splitter, and instead left it up in the zone, which Whit Merrifield promptly turned on, and made it a 5-0 ballgame.

Gonsolin was playing with fire throughout this whole outing, unable to put away hitters with two strikes, and it eventually burned him.

Tossing 109 pitches across five frames of work shows just how much he labored, averaging over 21 pitches per inning.

Notes

• James Outman reached base multiple times for the fourth time in his last five games, continuing to pick his numbers back up, after a prolonged slump following his scorching hot start. Outman went 2 for 4 with an RBI.
• Tyson Miller made his Dodgers debut, covering two low-leverage innings late, allowing a couple of runs.

Wednesday particulars

Home runs: Whit Merrifield (7), Danny Jansen (13)

WP — Yusei Kikuchi (8-3): 6 IP, 7 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 8 strikeouts

LP — Tony Gonsolin (5-4): 5 P, 7 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, 5 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers get an off-day at home before welcoming in the Reds over the weekend. The series opener on Friday night (7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA) is a battle of rookie starting pitchers Bobby Miller and Brandon Williamson.