Kenta Maeda allowed 5 earned runs in the first inning, all with two outs, including a solo homer by Shohei Ohtani and a 3-run shot by Justin Boar as the Dodgers dropped their second straight game, this one by a final score of 5-3. Even more disturbing than Maeda’s struggles, however, is the fact that the Dodgers went 2-13 with RISP.

It’s a mystery what caused Maeda’s struggles, but we do know that something went wrong. Maeda recorded two outs, including a strikeout of Mike Trout, but things soon went downhill. He gave up a solo homer to Ohtani, then hit a batter and walked the next. An RBI single made it a 2-0 deficit and then Boar delivered the big blow with a 3-run homer.

But even with this poor start, Tuesday’s game is a game that the Dodgers and many fans and reports believe we should have won. The Dodgers put 18 men on base and had 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Through all of this, the Dodgers collected only 2 hits with RISP and weren’t able to produce runs with them.

“Even with [Maeda’s] start, we should have won that game,” said Dave Roberts. “We had a chance to win the game in the ninth inning and that’s even, situationally, being bad tonight. Really bad. Over the last week to 10 days, we’re seeing a lot of spin with runners on base and we’re not adjusting. We’re just not doing a good enough job.”

Perhaps this loss served as a wakeup call to what Dodger fans have been concerned about since the Arizona series. It was enough to call for a 20-minute team meeting after the game, probably used to discuss their approach at the plate.

Seager’s Injury

As if enough hadn’t already gone wrong on Tuesday, Corey Seager went down with a hamstring injury in the 9th inning. Seager, who’s been carrying a lot of the weight of the team the last week or two and was a candidate for the All-Star team, hurt his hamstring running the bases and will be out 4-6 weeks.