Dodgers Offense Stymied by Brewers in 4-1 Loss

Luckily I was partaking in a family party rather than watching the Dodgers lose to the Brewers Saturday evening. I felt the pain of all those blacked out of Dodger games as I dealt with checking my Twitter feed for Dodger game updates in the Time Warner Cable-less home of my in-laws.

Checking my phone… are they still losing to the Brewers? Yes.

Checking my phone again… still losing? Yes.

Maybe it was better I didn’t see the 4-1 loss after all.

Dodgers 1 4 0

Brewers 4 9 0

WP- Fiers (1-1)

LP- Greinke (12-8)

S- Rodriguez (35)

HR- Davis (19), Gomez (18), A. Gonzalez (17)

The Dodgers only mustered one run on four measly hits. The one run came off a Adrian Gonzalez homerun in the fourth inning off Milwaukee starter Mike Fiers. The only other semblance of offense from the Dodgers was a Dee Gordon single in the fifth, a Matt Kemp single in the seventh, and a Gonzalez single in the top of the ninth.

Aug 8, 2014; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez (23) watches after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. At left is Milwaukee Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado (12). Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

That’s it.

Fiers pitched eight solid innings against the Dodgers allowing 1 run on 3 hits with 5 strikeouts and a walk on 101 pitches. Francisco Rodriguez came in to shut the door in the ninth picking up his 35th save of the season. He is tied with Trevor Rosenthal for most saves in the National League.

Zack Greinke had a disappointing start, the second in a row. He allowed 4 runs on 8 hits with 6 strikeouts and 1 walk on 83 pitches against his former team. Brian Wilson and Pedro Baez came in for the eighth and ninth and did not allow any more damage to be done, but the Dodgers offense had totally fallen asleep by that point in the game.

Greinke allowed two homeruns to Kris Davis and Carlos Gomez. With little run support from the Hanley-less lineup, the Dodgers could not come back from the early 2-0 deficit after the Davis dinger in the second inning.

Hanley Ramirez, who underwent an MRI on Saturday afternoon, suffered an oblique injury. It is unclear what the severity is, but it is likely that he will land on the disabled list again. This means the Dodgers will need to call up another infielder. Carlos Triunfel, Erisbel Arruebarrena, and Alex Guerrero seem like the likely candidates, but Triunfel was rumored to be the

frontrunner sending me into angry mutterings to myself Saturday night.

While carrying an injured Hanley on the roster should not be an option, Carlos Triunfel is all-around awful in the field and in the

batter’s box. Erisbel Arruebarrena would be a sharp defensive addition to the club, but with Miguel Rojas already seemingly relevant, that doesn’t look to be the ultimate choice. I’d prefer Alex Guerrero who could add some punch to the lineup with the absence of Hanley’s bat, but his defense seems to be questionable by some at this point. I disagree for the most part on this, and I feel that Guerrero is quite capable in the infield and most certainly better defensively than Hanley is.

If you have not already, you can see Alex Guerrero and Dee Gordon working out in the infield during Spring Training at second base side-by-side in my video:

The Dodgers dropped to 66-52 on the season, but they remain 3 1/2 games ahead of the Giants who lost their game to the Royals on Saturday. The Dodgers will now try to salvage a win in the series on Sunday morning as Clayton Kershaw counters Jimmy Nelson at 11:10 a.m.