Landon Knack has been a human life preserver for the Dodgers, an unsung rookie right-hander who has helped keep the rotation afloat when seas get a little rough.
With Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Gavin Stone and Clayton Kershaw on the injured list, the Dodgers summoned the 27-year-old right-hander from triple-A Oklahoma City for the fifth time this season, and Knack did what he usually does — give his team a chance to win, this time with a six-inning, two-run, three-hit, eight-strikeout start.
But Knack’s quality start could not match the one delivered by Matthew Boyd, the Cleveland left-hander who held a prolific Dodgers offense to one run and three hits in six innings of the Guardians’ 3-1 victory in Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
Boyd, in his fifth start back from Tommy John surgery, struck out six and walked one to improve to 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA. Right-hander Hunter Gaddis escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the eighth, and closer Emmanuel Clase retired the side in order in the ninth for his 42nd save.
Read more: With Gavin Stone injured, who’s left to carry Dodgers’ starting rotation?
The Dodgers’ second straight loss — on the heels of Wednesday night’s 10-1 shellacking at the hands of the Angels in Anaheim, reduced their National League West lead over the San Diego Padres to four games.
Knack blanked the American League Central-leading Guardians on one hit and struck out eight through five innings, allowing only one runner to reach second when Jose Ramirez hit a one-out single in the fourth and stole a base.
But when No. 9 batter Brayan Rocchio led off the top of the sixth with a single to right field, manager Dave Roberts elected to let Knack go a third time through the order, even though Cleveland had three left-handed hitters and a switch-hitter coming up, and left-hander Anthony Banda was warming in the Dodgers bullpen.
Knack got Steven Kwan to fly out to center field for the first out, but Andrew Gimenez jumped on a first-pitch fastball up in the zone and drove a two-run home run to right field for a 2-0 Cleveland lead. Knack retired Ramirez and Josh Naylor on fly balls to end the inning.
The Dodgers trimmed the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth when Shohei Ohtani crushed a center-cut, 89-mph sinker from Boyd 413 feet to center for his NL-leading 45th home run and 100th RBI of the season.
The Guardians threatened in the seventh off when Lane Thomas led off with a double to left field off reliever Daniel Hudson and was ruled safe on a steal of third. But the Dodgers challenged, believing Kiké Hernández had tagged Thomas on the left knee before Thomas’ right foot hit the bag, and they were right.
The call was overturned by instant replay, and Hudson retired the next two batters to keep the deficit at one.
But Rocchio burned the Dodgers again in the top of the eighth, lining a 1-and-0 sinker from Banda into the left-field bullpen for his eighth homer of the season and a 3-1 Cleveland lead.
The Dodgers threatened in the bottom of the eighth when Ohtani lined a one-out single to right field and took third on Mookie Betts’ double to left off Gaddis.
Freddie Freeman was walked intentionally to load the bases for Chris Taylor, who had replaced the injured Teoscar Hernández in the bottom of the first. Taylor fouled off three two-strike pitches before lining a 104-mph one-hopper to shortstop, Rocchio fielding the ball cleanly and throwing to second to start an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
The Dodgers’ injury ravaged rotation took another hit before the game when Stone, the only member of the opening-day rotation to not miss a start this season, was placed on the 15-day injured list because of shoulder inflammation.
Then their lineup took a hit in the bottom of the first when Hernández was hit in the left foot by an 81-mph slider from Boyd and was in so much pain as he limped to first base that he was pulled from the game. Roberts said X-rays on Hernández’s foot were negative, but he thinks he’ll be put on the injured list.
Hernández, who is batting .266 with an .818 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 28 home runs and 87 RBIs and ranks second on the team behind Freeman with a .287 average with runners in scoring position, was diagnosed with a left-foot contusion.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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