Late Rally Too Little, Too Late as Dodgers’ Slide Continues in St. Louis

For a team that has spent the better part of two weeks searching for a timely hit, the Dodgers finally found a string of them Saturday night.

They just found them far too late.

With two outs in the ninth inning, the lineup suddenly resembled the version that had been missing in action. Kyle Tucker, Teoscar Hernández, Max Muncy and Andy Pages lined up consecutive singles, trimming a three-run deficit to one and briefly stirring life into an otherwise quiet night.

It was a convincing display of the “pass the baton” approach the club has talked about through this offensive lull.

It was also, unfortunately for them, the final act.

Pinch-hitter Dalton Rushing followed and struck out on four pitches, sealing a 3-2 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals and extending the Dodgers’ losing streak to four games.

If the ninth inning offered a glimpse of what the Dodgers have been trying to rediscover, the previous eight served as a reminder of why they haven’t.

Los Angeles hit into four inning-ending double plays — an efficient, if unintentional, way to ensure rallies never had a chance to fully form. It left them in the familiar position of needing late-inning urgency to compensate for earlier missed opportunities, a formula that has defined this stretch and rarely delivered results.

The lack of power has been equally noticeable. The Dodgers have now gone five consecutive games without a home run, their longest such stretch in nearly a decade, a sharp contrast for a lineup that not long ago led the league in that category.

On the mound, Roki Sasaki provided the latest installment in what is quickly becoming one of the more difficult evaluations on the roster.

The right-hander allowed all three runs in a turbulent third inning, when the Cardinals opened with back-to-back doubles before Jordan Walker sent a split-fingered fastball just over the left-field wall. It was the kind of sequence that reinforces concerns about his ability to navigate sustained trouble.

And yet, the rest of the outing complicates the picture.

Sasaki completed six innings on a career-high workload, struck out four, walked two and retired his final 10 batters. Depending on perspective, it was either another example of early damage proving costly or a sign of a pitcher learning to stabilize after it.

At the moment, both interpretations appear to be living side by side.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, did just enough behind Michael McGreevy, who worked six scoreless innings while benefiting from the steady stream of double plays behind him. St. Louis extended its winning streak to six games, taking advantage of a Dodgers club still trying to piece together consistent offense.

For Los Angeles, the pattern has become difficult to ignore.

There are flashes — a late rally, a stretch of competitive at-bats — but they arrive in isolation, disconnected from the kind of sustained execution that turns games. Until those moments start appearing earlier and more often, the results are likely to remain the same.

Saturday offered another example.

The Dodgers finally passed the baton.

They just waited until the last possible moment to do it.