Jake Bauers's two-out single in the ninth is the box score headline, and it deserves to be. But the part of this 5-4 Brewers win I can't stop thinking about is what happened right before it: Dave Roberts handed the ball to Edwin Diaz with a lead, and Diaz couldn't get out of the inning.
The sequence is ugly. Diaz struck out the leadoff hitter, then gave up four straight singles that tied the game at four. Milwaukee's go-ahead run came later in the inning, capped by Bauers's two-out single. Diaz took the loss. Trevor Megill closed it out for the Brewers, and DL Hall got the win after two scoreless innings out of the bullpen.
What makes this more than a bad outing is the timing. Reporters had already asked Roberts that same morning whether he had other options for the ninth besides Diaz. That's not hindsight, just a manager getting questioned about his closer before the game even started, then watching it happen anyway.
That sequencing matters more than the final score. Bad nights happen to every reliever. But when the question about your closer's reliability is already hanging over the day, and then he gives up four straight singles to blow a lead, that's a pattern the Dodgers' front office and coaching staff can't keep waving off as a one-off.
It also came at a bad time for the Dodgers' bigger picture. They'd been grinding through a rough stretch before this series, leaning on pitching to cover for an offense that had gone cold. This loss undercut the one thing that had been holding the team together.
Give the Dodgers credit: they answered the very next game, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto striking out nine in a win that pulled them back within a game of Milwaukee in the race for the NL's best record. But Milwaukee took the next two games of the series, including a finale in which Bauers went 4-for-4, and by August 16 the Brewers had opened a three-game lead over the Dodgers in that race. I'd treat that gap as a snapshot, not a verdict. Long season, plenty left to play.
Still, my take stands: Bauers was the best player on the field across these four games, a role player delivering the moments a lineup full of stars is supposed to deliver. And Diaz's ninth inning is the loose thread the Dodgers need to pull on before it costs them something bigger than one August game.
