Dodgers postseason celebrations on hold after win streak snapped by Marlins
MIAMI –– The Dodgers will not be popping bottles in Miami this weekend as National League West division champions.
And now, they will have some work to do on Sunday, if they want to punch their playoff ticket at loanDepot Park before heading off to Cincinnati next week.
That was the result of the team’s 4-3 loss to the Miami Marlins on Saturday, in a defeat that snapped their season-long eight-game win streak and kept their magic number to clinch the NL West at four.
After a week of largely flawless play, Saturday served as a reality check for the two-time defending champions.
It also at least temporarily delayed some of their postseason clinching scenarios, after they entered the day with a route to securing a playoff berth as long as they won and got help elsewhere.
Instead, the Dodgers blew the early two-run lead they took on back-to-back home runs from Mookie Betts and Max Muncy in the first inning. More concerningly, they watched Tyler Glasnow struggle for a second-straight start.
Coming off a six-inning, four-run outing against the Washington Nationals last week, Glasnow gave up three runs in the second (the first two on a Graham Pauley homer, the third on three-straight singles with two outs in the inning), then was chased after back-to-back walks to begin the fifth.
His four-plus innings marked his shortest appearance of the season –– excluding a May 6 start in Houston when he left early with back spasms that would sideline him for the next 3 ½ months.
The four runs he allowed were also statistically significant, giving him consecutive outings with at least four runs against for only the second time in his Dodgers career.
The Dodgers didn’t help their case in other areas of Saturday’s loss either.
The Marlins scored their fourth run on a throwing error by Betts with the bases loaded later in the fifth.
The offense, meanwhile, didn’t have another hit after their first-inning blasts until the top of the seventh, and didn’t score another run until a two-out RBI single in the ninth from Hunter Feduccia. Instead, they finished the day with just those four knocks –– despite getting Freddie Freeman back in the lineup following a knee injury (he went 0-for-4 in his first game since Tuesday).
Thus, the team will have to wait at least two more days before it can claim another division title, while a 14th-consecutive MLB playoff berth will be on hold until Sunday at a minimum.
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