They had the bases loaded with no outs in the second inning. A leadoff double in the fourth. A one-out triple in the sixth.
All night Saturday, the Dodgers threatened to break the game open at Great American Ball Park. All night, they had chances to bury the Cincinnati Reds with their star-studded offense.
But at each crucial point, the team’s offense failed to deliver, continuing its recent trend of poor situational hitting to drop a fourth-straight game 3-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 41,880.
So far this season, one stat has defined the Dodgers’ success — or failures — more than anything else.
During their 12-11 start to the season, they batted just .244 with runners in scoring position, the 19th-best mark in the majors during that span.
During a 14-2 tear from April 21 to May 9, they batted an MLB-best .328 with runners in scoring position, seemingly addressing their situational hitting woes by cutting down on strikeouts and coming through in opportune moments.
In the two weeks since, however, the team’s batting average with runners in scoring position has cratered again. Since May 10, they are batting just .194 in such spots, better than two teams (the Angels and Texas Rangers) during that span.
Unsurprisingly, the team’s record has tapered off, with the Dodgers now 7-8 in their last 15 games — a stretch that has seen their high-powered lineup manage just 3.7 runs per game.
Situational hitting wasn’t the issue for the Dodgers (33-21) on Saturday.
Starting pitcher Walker Buehler couldn’t replicate the dominance he flashed in six scoreless innings against the Reds (22-30) in Los Angeles last week, instead getting tagged for three runs in 5 ⅔ innings in a rematch series the Reds have clinched and can sweep Sunday.
The lineup also remained far from top gear.
Shohei Ohtani had the triple in the sixth, but struck out three times, leaving his batting over the last nine games at .206.
Will Smith hit a leadoff single in the second (and scored the inning’s lone run on a Jason Heyward double-play ball) and Freddie Freeman doubled in the fourth, but they managed nothing else, continuing slow May performances for each (they are both batting below .250 this month).
Even Mookie Betts couldn’t provide a spark, getting picked off at first base in the first inning after his only hit of the night.
Despite that, the Dodgers still had chances. Turning them into runs, however, proved yet again to be an unsolvable challenge.
Situational hitting can be a fickle stat in baseball. And Octobers aside, it has typically been a strength for the Dodgers. They have ranked top 10 in the category each of the past five seasons. They entered Saturday in the top half of the majors at 14th, too, with a .258 mark that was actually better than their .255 average overall.
Still, the issue has plagued them in the past couple of postseasons — and makes any skid like their current one that much more frustrating, looming as a potential playoff weakness for a team navigating championship-or-bust expectations.
The good news for the Dodgers: They still have a sizable lead in the National League West, up 5 ½ games on the San Francisco Giants. They’ll eventually get injured third baseman Max Muncy back, though his return (once hoped to come as soon as this week) has been delayed by continued discomfort in his strained oblique. Most of all, their recent malaise feels like a temporary blip, more of a frustrating speed bump in their season than some larger cause for alarm.
However, that doesn’t lessen the frustration of Saturday’s loss — the latest in what has become another mediocre stretch for a team capable of much more.
