Dodgers bookend loss with homers from Teoscar and Shohei as funk continues

OAKLAND -- There was a sense of urgency when Shohei Ohtani stepped to the plate with the Dodgers down to their last out on Friday night at the Coliseum -- both for him and his team.

Ohtani had gone hitless in four earlier at-bats -- and in 19 plate appearances dating back to Saturday in Houston. One loomed particularly large vs. the A's: his weak grounder to first with the bases loaded that went for the final out of the seventh inning.

With a second chance to come up big, Ohtani delivered by hammering a three-run blast a Statcast-projected 405 feet to right field at 116.3 mph off the bat to bring the Dodgers within one with two outs in the ninth inning. But it was ultimately too little, too late as L.A. fell to Oakland in the series opener, 6-5.

"To be honest, the last several games, I haven't been feeling too great at the plate," Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. "And the previous at-bat before that home run at-bat -- if I could have contributed a little bit more, I think we wouldn't have been in that spot late in the [ninth] inning."

The Dodgers' only run-scoring frames bookended the game, beginning with Teoscar Hernández's two-run blast in the first inning. That seemed to be an auspicious sign for a team that entered Friday 45-11 when scoring first, but after Hernández crossed the plate, the Dodgers proceeded to go 15 up, 15 down against A's rookie Joey Estes, a stretch that came to an end when Will Smith and Gavin Lux drew back-to-back walks in the sixth.

The uneven offense, combined with another rough start for Gavin Stone, dropped the Dodgers to 1-5 on their ongoing road trip through Houston, San Diego and Oakland. L.A. (63-47) has seen its lead in the NL West shrink to four games over Arizona (59-51), with San Diego (59-52) a half-game behind.

The tough stretch on the road coincides with Freddie Freeman's absence from the team, as the star first baseman stepped away to be with his family as his 3-year-old son deals with a rare illness. Before July 26, Freeman had started all of the Dodgers' games.

On paper, the Dodgers should be able to have their way with the A's (46-65), but they ran into a hot-hitting Oakland team that has effectively played spoiler several times in the past month. Meanwhile, July (11-13) was L.A.'s first losing month this season, and August began on a similar note.

The Dodgers' roster has been ravaged by injuries, and the absence of several lineup mainstays has been glaring. While the team could feasibly tread water until some of those players return, the sense of urgency has only grown as other teams in the division have begun to gain traction.

"Every night, we're trying to win. We're trying to win every single game," manager Dave Roberts said. "It is tough when you have stars that are not able to play, and some length to the lineup, and this streak we're on right now, this run of striking out. The guys we're running out there are doing the best they can, but I still feel we need to get better."

Roberts delivered a welcome piece of news prior to the game, announcing that four sidelined position players will face live pitching in a simulated game Thursday at Dodger Stadium: Mookie Betts (left hand fracture), Max Muncy (right oblique strain), Miguel Rojas (right forearm tightness) and the newly acquired Tommy Edman (right wrist surgery, sprained ankle), who joined the Dodgers in a three-team deal with the Cardinals and White Sox ahead of the Trade Deadline.

If all goes according to plan, L.A.'s lineup could be around full strength by the beginning of September. But there's a way to go until then, and the Dodgers will have to contend with their surging division rivals in the interim.

"When you have a good team, the only question is if everybody can stay healthy," Hernández said. "Obviously, we've got a lot of injuries lately. … We just have to keep making it happen, not thinking about the injuries that we have and just trusting the guys that we have in this room and just go in and battle."