Dodgers' offensive funk continues in blowout loss to Giants

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) looks on from the dugout in the first inning against against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) looks on from the dugout in the first inning against against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.

Ohtani went 0-for-5 Monday night and is now 4-for-38 over his last 11 games. Even more startling, he hasn’t homered in his last 111 at-bats. For a player who can alter the energy of an entire stadium with one swing, his current at-bats feel tense, rushed and unusually vulnerable.

Dave Roberts acknowledged as much after the game, saying Ohtani has become “too anxious” at the plate, resulting in a steady diet of pulled ground balls. Roberts added that Ohtani will get a mental breather later this week and won’t hit Wednesday or Thursday around his next pitching start.

The Dodgers need him to reset mentally because right now, the offense is searching for identity.

And for five innings Monday, it looked like Roki Sasaki might give them enough breathing room to survive it.

Sasaki turned in one of his sharper outings of the season early, retiring eight straight batters at one point and limiting San Francisco’s damage to a solo homer by Rafael Devers in the second inning. Devers worked an eight-pitch at-bat before jumping on a 91mph splitter and launching it into the seats for a 1-0 Giants lead.

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Roki Sasaki (11) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Dodger Stadium.

Outside of that mistake, Sasaki looked composed. His splitter had life. His command was cleaner. His pace looked confident.

Then the sixth inning arrived, and everything unraveled quickly. Back-to-back singles opened the inning before Heliot Ramos ripped a two-run double down the line. Just like that, Sasaki’s night ended before recording an out in the inning.

Sasaki pitched five innings, six hits, three earned runs, five strikeouts, but doesn't fully capture the frustration of how close he appeared to breaking through with his best major league outing yet.

“My stuff was really good today,” Sasaki said. “Second time through, third time through, my pitch selection was a little predictable, so I have to work on that.”

Even after one of his better-commanded starts of the season, Sasaki admitted he still feels “very far away” from becoming the pitcher he wants to be.

Roberts, however, continues to see progress.

“I think that Roki has been good, I really do,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers briefly answered back. Muncy tied the game in the fourth with an RBI single before Andy Pages grounded into a double play that still scored another run, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

Then after Ramos’ two-run double flipped momentum back to San Francisco in the sixth, Muncy responded again.

Trevor McDonald left a pitch out over the plate, and Muncy hammered it 396 feet to the opposite field for a game-tying homer. It was his 11th homer of the season and another reminder that, while much of the lineup searches for rhythm, Muncy has quietly become one of the Dodgers’ steadiest hitters.

But after that swing, the offense vanished.

The Dodgers had a chance to reclaim momentum later in the sixth after Teoscar Hernández moved into scoring position. But Ohtani grounded out to end the inning, another frustrating finish in what has become a difficult stretch for the superstar.

Then came the seventh inning collapse.

Alex Vesia retired the first batter before allowing three straight singles and a walk. By the time Roberts emerged from the dugout, the game had tilted decisively toward San Francisco.

“It’s on me tonight,” Vesia said.

Will Klein inherited the bases-loaded mess but couldn’t escape it. Willy Adames, who entered the night batting just .209 and hitless in his first three at-bats, lined a two-run single to right on a hanging sweeper to extend the Giants’ lead to 6-3.

The Giants piled on three more runs in the ninth, including another RBI single from Adames, a bases-loaded walk by Matt Chapman and a fielder’s choice RBI from Jesús Rodríguez.

And just like that, another frustrating Dodgers night was complete.

Still, inside the clubhouse, the messaging remained steady. Concerned? Yes. Overreacting? No.

“There’s a lot of conversations happening,” Muncy said. “We’re not taking this lightly right now. We also understand it is 162.”

That balance, urgency without panic, is what the Dodgers are trying to maintain.

As the longest-tenured player in the organization, Muncy understands the challenge now is preventing frustration from spiraling into something larger.

“We have to keep staying positive,” Muncy said. “It is easy to dwell on the negative but for us we just have to keep moving forward. We need to keep showing up. We need to keep understanding who we are as a team and who we are as a group. We’re back-to-back champions for a reason. We find ways to get out of this.”

The Dodgers are betting he’s right.

Now they’ll hand the ball to Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Tuesday hoping their ace can stop the bleeding before this funk becomes something more significant than just a rough stretch in May.