LOS ANGELES -- After failing to cash in on plenty of opportunities to put Wednesday night's game out of reach, the Dodgers paid the price in 10 innings.
For as long as Yoshinobu Yamamoto cruised, so did his team. But the late innings turned into a grind for both him and the Dodgers, who fell 8-6 to the Cardinals, dropping the first two games of the three-game set at Dodger Stadium.
After beginning his evening with five hitless innings, Yamamoto surrendered a pair of two-run blasts in his final two frames. His four runs were the most he had allowed since July 11, his final start of the first half.
The Dodgers' offense got off to a hot start, with Freddie Freeman providing an early lead with a three-run blast in the first inning -- his first long ball since July 4. But the bats fizzled, going 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position and stranding 13 runners.
Since July 1, the Dodgers have a 26-27 record.
"It doesn't feel good when Yamamoto's pitching and leaves with a lead and we don't win the game," manager Dave Roberts said. "I don't think … there's really time to be disappointed. I don't think anyone cares. We just got to perform and execute and win baseball games. That's just the bottom line."
Through five hitless innings, Yamamoto was masterful. He punched out seven batters while facing the minimum, erasing a third-inning walk by inducing a double play. Second baseman Miguel Rojas helped keep the Cardinals out of the hit column, taking away potential hits from Bryan Torres and Iván Herrera on back-to-back plays in the fourth inning.
Yamamoto's no-hit bid came to an end in the sixth inning, when José Fermín led off the frame with a single. His shutout came to an end two batters later, when Thomas Saggese crushed a first-pitch sinker that cleared the fence in center field.
One inning later, Yamamoto allowed more damage to lead off the seventh. Jordan Walker doubled, and Leo Bernal took a full-count four-seamer out to right-center to bring the Cardinals within one run.
"With today's game, they gave me run support, and then I wanted to keep the lead and do a better job," Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. "Next time, I will do a better job."
Following the two high-stress innings, Yamamoto's night was over after throwing seven innings on 93 pitches. The Dodgers led 5-4 after Mookie Betts tacked on with a two-run shot in the sixth, and Roberts turned to de facto closer Tanner Scott in the eighth to try to preserve the slim lead.
But the Cardinals tied the game on an Alec Burleson sacrifice fly, erasing a Dodgers lead that had held since the bottom of the first inning. L.A. threatened by putting Teoscar Hernández on third with two outs in the bottom of the ninth but was unable to cash in, and St. Louis came out on top after striking for three runs off Brock Stewart in the 10th.
The extended sub-.500 stretch for the Dodgers bears some similarities to last year, when L.A. went 25-27 in July and August before turning things around with a 15-10 September. The back-to-back champions have emerged from a summer swoon before, but that does not make the experience of being in one any more palatable.
The Dodgers have the perspective to know that they can turn a poor stretch of play in the regular season into a footnote if they get hot at the right time. But to do that, they'll need to show improvement soon now that the calendar has flipped to September.
"We've been through everything, we've seen everything," Freeman said. "We've had our backs against the wall and had to win games when we've needed to. It's a very resilient group, and you're starting to see some life out of the offense, so I think good things are ahead."