Braves squander scoring opportunities in 3-1 loss to Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — The Braves couldn’t find the timely hit Friday and the house of horrors that is Dodger Stadium continued to be so for them in a 3-1 loss to the Dodgers.

Leaving 10 men on base and going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position didn’t help matters for the Braves, who are now on a losing streak for just the second time this season and for the first time since early April. They also fell to 9-28 in their last 37 regular-season games at the home of the two-time defending World Series champions.

The Dodgers (24-14) scored single runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings to hand Chris Sale just his second defeat of the year. Sale went seven innings and struck out seven. He didn’t walk anyone, threw 76 of his 102 pitches for strikes and got ahead of 18 of the 27 batters he faced.

Michael Harris II went 4-for-4 with four singles, the eighth four-hit game of his career. He scored Atlanta’s only run and was also thrown out at the plate. And the Braves couldn’t afford to squander scoring opportunities like that as the game progressed.

“It was pretty vital,” Harris said of his team’s inability to get the big hit. “I got thrown out at home, they just made some plays with us on base. Just got to try to capitalize on that next time.”

For the 16th time in 39 games, the Braves scored first thanks to an Austin Riley RBI single up the middle in the second inning. The Dodgers countered immediately in the bottom of the inning when Kyle Tucker reached down and hooked an RBI double into the right field corner.

Both teams flashed some leather in the middle innings.

In the third, Mike Yastrzemski tracked down a ball hit into the right field gap by Santiago Espinal, turned and fired to second, where rookie shortstop Jim Jarvis had gotten into perfect position to receive the throw and tag out Espinal coming in headfirst. In the fourth, Teoscar Hernández collected a double hit off the left field wall by Riley, fired to the infield to shortstop Miguel Rojas, who nailed Harris trying to score from first.

The Braves challenged the call but to no avail.

“The replay didn’t really do justice for what I felt and saw myselt at home. I thought I kinda got in there, but wasn’t enough to overturn it,” Harris said.

Said Braves manager Walt Weiss: “I think the game could’ve turned there on the Reilly (double). Could be 3-1 us right there and instead it’s an out at the plate and game stays tied one to one.

“Two outs, you’re gonna be aggressive on your sends there. It was a good send.”

The defensive show continued in the fifth when Jarvis bolted into shallow left and went full extension to catch a soft liner off the bat of Tucker.

Jarvis recorded his first MLB hit in the top of the fifth, but his throwing error to start the bottom of the frame allowed Miguel Rojas to reach second base. That play proved extra costly as it allowed Shohei Ohtani to come up with two outs - Ohtani rolled an RBI single into right, giving the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.

That slim lead widened a bit in the sixth when old friend Freddie Freeman squared up a 97-mph fastball and belted a solo home run to left center. It was Freeman’s 100th career win as a Dodger.

“That’s kind of what unfolded this game, really was, that homer in the sixth, I got to do a better job of being able to kind of keep it on the rails there a little bit,” Sale (6-2) said. “You can come back from one (down), but once you start getting late into the game, you just give ‘em momentum like that with the arms they got in the bullpen, it’s going to be tough. So, yeah, that’s the one (pitch) you want back.”

The Braves (26-13) fell to 20-3 when allowing three runs or less and 9-3 following a loss.