Blue Jays limited to three hits, lose again to dominant Dodgers

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The Blue Jays might want to apologize to the millions of baseball fans in Japan for making them watch Toronto this weekend.

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With Shohei Ohtani and his star-laden Los Angeles Dodgers in town, and with Yusei Kikuchi on the hill for the Jays on Saturday, even more eyeballs than usual are on baseball in that country and elsewhere. And so far, the Jays have put on a putrid display.

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A day after getting embarrassed 12-2, Toronto eked out only three hits and fell 4-2, losing for the fifth game in a row to stay below .500.

Ohtani didn’t homer again, as he had to kick off the series, but he did knock in a run with a loud single in the second inning with the Dodgers already up 2-0.

Strangely, former Tampa Bay Rays ace turned Dodger Tyler Glasnow came in winless in his career against Toronto (0-4, five no-decisions), but was in complete control in this one, giving up just two hits, a run and three walks, while striking out nine in six innings before exiting due to cramps. The Los Angeles bullpen mopped up from there, allowing an unearned run in the ninth as the Dodgers improved to 18-11.

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Much earlier, another Dodgers superstar, Mookie Betts, had led off with a triple that a diving Daulton Varsho could not come up with. That brought Ohtani up to a chorus of boos. Ohtani lined out to second base, where Cavan Biggio made a nice play. But Canadian Freddie Freeman drove Betts home with a sacrifice fly off Kikuchi.

Kikuchi, who attended the same high school as Ohtani in Japan before the phenom got there, was in the midst of a fine season (2-1, 2.28 ERA heading in), but wasn’t at his best. Kikuchi gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings, striking out a season-low three batters, though one of them was Ohtani, with Kikuchi making the slugger look far more confused than usual by having him swinging wildly on a curveball.

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Betts knocked in a fourth Dodgers run with a single in the fourth, but didn’t score again. Ohtani ended his day with a fly ball to the wall in left in the ninth.

Toronto’s first run came after Danny Jansen had been hit by a Glasnow pitch in the seventh. Davis Schneider followed with a double and Jansen was able to come all the way around.

That was it for the disappointing Jays until Schneider reached on a throwing error and scored on a Biggio single in the ninth.

Kevin Gausman, who has yet to win this year, will try to help Toronto avoid the sweep on Sunday.

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