Dodgers dealt split after opening blowouts

It’s still 2020 and nothing is certain, as the Dodgers were reminded when they lost their second consecutive game to the rebuilding Giants Sunday night, 3-1.

The Dodgers fly to Houston Monday to deal with coronavirus protocols on the road for the first time. On the field, they will need to up their game Tuesday and Wednesday when they face the Astros, who won 107 games last year and beat the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series, then were disciplined for stealing signs.

• Box score

The only thing the Dodgers stole on Sunday was second base by Mookie Betts, who then scored their only run in the third inning on a Cody Bellinger RBI single. It was welcome production by the pair of MVPs, but after opening the season with a pair of blowout wins, the Dodgers finished the four-game series with a disappointing split against a San Francisco team with low expectations.

The Dodgers stranded 10 runners in the game and 42 in the series.

“You just have to give credit to those guys. They matched up really well,” said manager Dave Roberts. “You’re seeing a different guy every at-bat and they made pitches when they needed to. But offensively, we’re going to be alright.”

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The Dodgers even had a chance to pull off one of their late-inning magic acts with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Enrique Hernández grounded out against submarine right-hander Tyler Rogers.

Roberts said he was comfortable letting Hernández bat righty vs. righty, despite having left-handed hitters Joc Pederson and Edwin Ríos on the bench.

“Rogers is very neutral [against right-handers or left-handers],” Roberts said. “They started that innings against [Max] Muncy, [Justin] Turner and Bellinger, so that’s speaking to the fact that he’s pretty neutral. And it was the third time in four nights that Kiké’s seen him, so I thought familiarity would benefit us, as he got a hit off him the first time.”

In his first start of the year, Julio Urías had to work at it, but kept the game in check. He lasted five innings, walked three and allowed three leadoff batters to reach base, but kept the damage to one run and left a 1-1 tie.

“I struggled with my first pitch, and that’s usually something I attack with and I wasn’t able to execute that,” said Urías. “Later on I was able to adjust.”

Relievers Brusdar Graterol and Adam Kolarek allowed the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning, Pedro Báez was touched for an insurance run in the seventh and the vaunted Dodgers offense, even with a designated hitter, sputtered for a second consecutive game.

Urías gave the Giants a free run in the third inning. He was late covering first on Mauricio Dubón’s infield single, he walked Mike Yastrzemski to put Dubón in scoring position and with one out paid the price with a seeing-eye RBI single to left field by Darin Ruf, the former Dodgers Minor Leaguer who spent the last three seasons playing in Korea.

Although the Dodgers bullpen allowed two of the three runs, closer Kenley Jansen made his season debut with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.