The Dodgers have won 71 games since Tyler Glasnow earned his last victory.
That was March 31, 152 days ago. The season was six games old then. No other pitcher with at least 13 major league starts has gone longer without a win this season.
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Yet Glasnow was never deserving of a better fate than he was Saturday, when he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and a shutout into the seventh, only to wind up with the loss when the Dodgers fell 6-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
With the Padres beating the Minnesota Twins, the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West is back at one game.
It’s not as if Glasnow has pitched poorly. In one start he didn’t yield a run and in four others he gave up just one.
Read more: Hernández: Everyone can stop wondering. Mookie Betts isn’t moving back to right field
He didn’t get the win in any of those games.
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In four of his first 13 starts, the Dodgers (77-59) didn’t score a run behind him. So while his 2.45 earned-run average and six earned runs given up in four July appearances led the team’s starters, all he had was a loss and three no decisions to show for it.
He’s been almost as good this month. But he’s never been better than he was Saturday, when he retired the first 10 batters on just 39 pitches, striking out four.
Dodgers third baseman Kiké Hernández reacts after striking out in the seventh inning Saturday against Arizona. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
The spell was broken with one out in the fourth when Glasnow hit Ketel Marte with a 1-1 pitch. He escaped the inning without further damage and with the no-hitter intact.
Arizona’s Eduardo Rodriguez (6-8) was nearly as stingy, however, giving up just two hits through four innings, although he did walk two.
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Rodriguez, who started the night with a 5.67 ERA, is the fourth starter with an ERA over 5.00 the Dodgers have faced in their past eight games. They have lost all four games, scoring one run in 24 innings combined against the four pitchers.
The Dodgers nearly got to Rodriguez in the fifth inning when Kiké Hernández led off with a hard grounder that got by third baseman Blaze Alexander for a single. Miguel Rojas then sent him to third with a double and Shohei Ohtani followed with what should have been a sacrifice fly to left.
The throw from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was off line but when Hernández didn’t slide, catcher Gabriel Moreno was able to retrieve the ball and tag the runner to complete the double play. After a long review, the call by plate umpire Dan Bellino was affirmed and one pitch later, Mookie Betts lined to Alexander at third to end the inning.
The Dodgers threatened again in the sixth when Will Smith and Freddie Freeman walked on full-count pitches. But a strikeout and Andy Pages’ double-play grounder back to the mound ended the threat.
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Glasnow, meanwhile, lost his no-hitter on an infield single in the sixth and his shutout on a home run in the seventh.
The first hit went to Ildemaro Vargas, the No. 9 hitter, who tapped a one-out grounder up the third-base line that Hernández, playing well off the line, ranged to his left to field. But his hurried throw had no chance to catch the speedy Vargas.
Dodgers baserunner Freddie Freeman is tagged out by Arizona third baseman Blaze Alexander during the fourth inning Saturday. (Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Corbin Carroll ended the shutout an inning later when he lined the first pitch into the right-field pavilion. And that’s when Glasnow’s night spiraled out of control.
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Gurriel followed with a sinking liner to center that Pages kicked away for a double and when Teoscar Hernández was unable to squeeze Alexander’s long drive at the wall in right-center, which went for another double, the Diamondbacks (68-69) had runners on second and third with no outs.
Moreno drove Gurriel in on a fly ball to center and Alexander followed him home when Pages’ throw from center skipped away from Kiké Hernández at third to make it 3-0.
Glasnow, baseball’s best 1-3 pitcher, didn’t come out for the eighth, having thrown 100 pitches in a season-high seven innings, striking out six. The Dodgers got him a run — the first they’ve scored for him in two starts and 11 innings — as a parting gift thanks to a Betts’ RBI single. But Smith flew out to center to end the inning.
The Dodgers were one for eight with runners in scoring position Saturday, leaving eight runners on base.
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Arizona then put the game away in the ninth, reaching reliever Kirby Yates for three runs on a single, a two-out walk and Vargas’ second homer of the season, a 423-foot bomb to right-center.
Etc.
Monday is the Dodgers’ second off day in less than a week so manager Dave Roberts plans to skip Emmet Sheehan’s spot in the rotation. Sheehan shut out the Reds on two hits in a career-best seven innings in his last outing. The right-hander could pitch out of the bullpen Sunday, but Roberts will open the team’s six-game road trip to Pittsburgh and Baltimore with Clayton Kershaw and Shohei Ohtani.
Reliever Michael Kopech, who has spent most of the season on the injured list with knee and shoulder issues, will accompany the team on its East Coast road trip and could be activated Tuesday. Brock Stewart, sidelined since Aug. 12 with shoulder inflammation, has resumed throwing after getting a cortisone shot.
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Kyle Hurt, who pitched in four games over the past two seasons before undergoing surgery to repair a ligament in his right elbow last July, faced live hitters in a multi-inning simulated game Saturday and will pitch at Oklahoma City in September. “It’s been a long 13 months. I’m very excited to be back,” said Hurt, 27.
Roberts did not rule out a bullpen role for Hurt down the stretch.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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