Dodgers blow lead in 9th, fall to D-backs in 11

LOS ANGELES -- The on-field fireworks on Fireworks Night at Dodger Stadium shouldn’t distract from the persistent vulnerability of the best team in the National League, its bullpen, which cost the Dodgers in a 3-2 loss to the D-backs on Friday night.

Closer Kenley Jansen allowed a game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning and Julio Urias gave up the game-winning solo homer in the 11th, both by Arizona catcher Carson Kelly, who also slugged a ninth-inning homer off Jansen on July 3.

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A Dodgers offense that scored a pair of runs off D-backs left-hander Robbie Ray in the third vanished thereafter, with 22 consecutive batters getting retired until Joc Pederson's leadoff walk in the 11th. Los Angeles was outhit, 12-2.

But it’s the Dodgers' bullpen that’s been under the microscope all season. With no big-name relief acquisition at the Trade Deadline, every late defeat like this one will be viewed with one eye on the past two World Series losses and the other on how this bullpen can possibly succeed this October.

This was Jansen’s fifth blown save, more than he had all last regular season, and his ERA is up to 3.83. Last year, it was 3.01. From 2010-17, his ERA was 2.08, so the trend is alarming for the 31-year-old, whose 2-2 cutter was crushed by Kelly after the right-hander made a pair of pickoff throws to first base.

“His ball just didn’t have any life to it, to be honest to you,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “He gives up a flare to [Nick] Ahmed, then leaves a pitch out over. That was the ninth inning. Kenley’s just got to execute.

“We had a lead in the ninth inning. We didn’t do anything after those two runs. You’ve still got to keep tacking on. It’s one of those games, collectively, we lost a baseball game.”

Jansen’s inconsistency has been an issue all year, but now Urias has had some struggles. He’s been scored upon in each of his last five outings, one of which was a start. The home run to Kelly, which came on a 1-2 changeup, was the first Urias had allowed since June 1.

The Dodgers' bullpen leads the Majors with 30 wins, but it also has 19 of the team’s 41 losses.

The bullpen let a Walker Buehler win get away. Buehler, following up his 15-strikeout complete game against the Padres, had to scramble to pitch six scoreless innings. He struck out eight, five of them coming with runners in scoring position.

“Not as clean, not as efficient as I like,” Buehler said. “I got lucky and made good pitches and got good defense and got away with it. I wasn’t commanding it as well as I’d like to.”