SAN DIEGO — With one out in the top of the seventh inning, manager Dave Roberts called on Gavin Lux to pinch-hit for Austin Barnes.
Lux struck out looking on a 101-mph fastball by Luis Garcia, but the significance of the at-bat was more in its symbolism than result.
The Dodgers were panicking.
The substitution had cost them their designated hitter, as Will Smith was forced to strap on his chest protector in his bottom half of the inning after starting the game as the DH. The Dodgers were down by only a run at the time.
The Dodgers are three games into their National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres, and they’re still waiting for the offense to show up. In the wake of their 2-1 loss in Game 3 on Friday night at Petco Park that put them at a 2-1 series deficit, they are now a loss away from elimination.
The highest-scoring team in baseball scored five runs in the first 2 2/3 innings of its Game 1 victory but failed to record a single hit after Padres starter Mike Clevinger left the game.
The 111-win team went the feast-or-famine route in its Game 2 defeat, its entire offensive output consisting of three solo home runs against Yu Darvish.
Game 3 was just more of the same — if not worse. The Dodgers were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. They stranded seven runners. Their only run was scored on a fifth-inning sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts.
What made their inability to score especially frustrating was that the Padres allowed them to stay in the game. The Padres left 10 men on base and were one for 10 with runners in scoring position.
The Dodgers are now batting .198 in this series against pitchers other than Clevinger. They are hitless in their last 19 at-bats with runners in scoring position. They are scoreless in 13 innings against the Padres’ bullpen.
Before the game, Roberts had talked of how Betts could jump-start the offense. Betts was a combined one for eight in the first two games of this series, but his problems started long before that as he batted .206 over his final 26 regular-season games.
Roberts wouldn’t repeat his refrain about how as Betts goes, the Dodgers go, but said, “It certainly makes life easier on everyone when he’s going.”
In Game 3, Betts was going. The Dodgers’ most expensive player led off the game with a single to center field. He drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. He hit line drives in each of his other two at-bats, including a 99-mph scorcher in the third inning that was snagged by Padres third baseman Manny Machado.
It didn’t matter.
It also didn’t matter that the previously unproductive bottom of the lineup put men on base.
No. 8 hitter Trayce Thompson and No. 9 hitter Barnes reached base to start both the third and fifth innings.
But Betts’ lineout to Machado in the third inning was followed by a strikeout by Trea Turner, a walk by Freeman and a popup by Smith.
The runners were on second and third base in the fifth inning as Thompson’s single was followed by a double by Barnes. Betts’ sacrifice fly scored Thompson and advanced Barnes to third base, but Turner popped up and Freeman grounded out on a one-pitch at-bat.
Freeman didn’t look like his usually steady self, as he also swung at the first pitch in his next at-bat, flying out to center field with Turner on first base.
The Dodgers’ hitters in the 7-8-9 spots had batted a combined .190 in the first two games, which inspired several lineup changes.
Cody Bellinger was benched, replaced in center field by Thompson. Smith was the designated hitter, which moved Justin Turner to third base and Max Muncy to second. The left-handed-hitting Lux didn’t start against the left-handed-throwing Blake Snell.
In some ways, the story of this series could be told through Bellinger.
The Dodgers and Padres had two of the worst-hitting center fielders in baseball in Bellinger and Trent Grisham.
Grisham has been a breakout performer in this postseason. His fourth-inning homer, which doubled the Padres’ lead to 2-0, was his third homer of these playoffs. Between the wild-card series and this NLDS, he’s batting .389.
Bellinger is one for six and now on the bench.
