early run

Dave Roberts downplayed the easy narrative on Sunday afternoon.

“No,” he said when asked if his Dodgers had the New York Yankees’ proverbial number, having followed up their defeat of the Bronx Bombers in last year’s World Series with two impressive wins to start this weekend’s rematch at Dodger Stadium.

“I think we’ve had their number the last two nights,” Roberts said, “but today’s a different day.”

Was it ever.

Twenty-four hours after a total annihilation of the Yankees in a 16-run rout on Saturday, the Dodgers suffered the kind of setback that has so often plagued them this season, squandering the chance to build further momentum in a 7-3 loss that prevented a series sweep.

For as complete a performance as the Dodgers (36-23) put together Saturday, they looked equally out of sorts in a “Sunday Night Baseball” finale, getting a rare bad start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto, mistakes on defense and basepaths that cost them early runs, and virtually nothing from a lineup that looked largely discombobulated against funky left-hander (and former Dodgers swingman) Ryan Yarbrough.

They might have come out of the weekend with a marquee series win, continuing to nurse a narrow lead in the National League West standings.

But, they invited more scrutiny over their inconsistent start to the season with a finale flop, dropping to 13-13 over their last 26 games.

“You got to focus on the positives,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “We just took two of three from a really, really good team. We’re obviously upset that we didn’t get this one. But we played two really good games. … Just [today] the result wasn’t there.”

Yamamoto had been the one constant in the Dodgers’ injury-plagued rotation. His 1.97 earned-run average was second in the NL. His 64 innings not only led the team, but were almost twice as many as anyone else besides Dustin May.

Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto shouts in frustration after giving up a home run to New York’s Ben Rice in the third inning.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Yamamoto also had an impressive personal track record against the Yankees (36-22), shutting them out over seven innings in New York last June before delivering 6 ⅓ innings of one-run ball in Game 2 of the World Series.

On Sunday, however, he couldn’t consistently find the strike zone or execute his trademark splitter. And after scoring just two runs in their previous 15 innings in this series, the Yankees finally came to life at the plate.

“I was not being able to control my pitches,” Yamamoto said through interpreter Yoshihiro Sonoda. “During the game, I was trying to make an adjustment, but … I could not get it back, my stuff.”

In the first, Trent Grisham singled and Ben Rice walked before Jasson Domínguez dumped a line drive into left, driving in a run when Andy Pages airmailed his throw to home plate.

In the third, a leadoff walk to Judge was followed by a two-run homer to Rice — Yamamoto missing badly with two splitters in the first at-bat before leaving one hanging in the next.

Later in the inning, the Yankees scored again after Yamamoto gave up two singles and spiked a splitter for a run-scoring wild pitch.

Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani strikes out against the Yankees in the first inning Sunday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

And with two outs in the fourth, Roberts pulled Yamamoto, his pitch count having ballooned to 96 on a day he gave up a season-high in hits (seven) and walked three others. It was the first time this year that Yamamoto, whose ERA rose to 2.39, had failed to complete the fifth.

“He wasn’t great today, wasn’t sharp with any of his pitches,” Roberts said. “Really uncharacteristic.”

The Dodgers faltered in other ways, as well.

After his first-inning throwing error, Pages made a mistake on the bases in the second. Following a one-out double, he was thrown out on an over-aggressive steal of third. That meant that when Tommy Edman homered moments later — his first long ball in 17 games, breaking him out of a recent funk at the plate — it was only a solo blast, temporarily tying the score before the Yankees answered in the next half-inning.

There would be no counterpunch from Dodgers’ offense, which was missing Mookie Betts for a third-straight game because of a toe fracture (Betts said before the game his toe was starting to feel better, and went through pregame activities in hopes of avoiding a stint on the injured list).

Instead, Yarbrough cruised against the team that dealt him away at last year’s trade deadline.

Even though he never hit 90 mph with his fastball, he induced a string of soft contact while striking out five in a six-inning start. Yarbrough was especially effective against the top of the Dodgers’ order, which went a combined 0 for 16.

“It’s funky,” catcher Will Smith, who was batting cleanup, said of Yarbrough’s unorthodox delivery. “We gave them a little momentum. They jumped on us early [with] some long innings. So he did a good job attacking us and keeping us off balance.”

The Dodgers did show some life after Yarbrough’s exit, with Pages and Muncy each taking reliever Jonathan Loáisiga deep within the space of three at-bats.

But by then, it was much too little, much too late — resulting in the Dodgers’ second straight series in which they failed to complete a sweep, and yet another momentum-halting loss in a season plagued by a few too many of them.

“I think for us, the takeaway is we won a series and that was the goal coming in,” Roberts said. “I think at the end of the day, you keep winning series and things will take care of themselves.”

NEW YORK — Shohei Ohtani provided the Dodgers some temporary reprieve on Sunday.

Before the game, he faced hitters for the first time since undergoing Tommy John revision surgery in 2023, drawing a large crowd in the visitor’s dugout at Citi Field as he touched 97 mph with his fastball and struck out two batters in five at-bats.

Four and a half hours later, the two-way star dazzled with his bat, as well, belting a second-deck leadoff blast in the first inning against Mets ace and fellow Japanese star Kodai Senga to tie the major league lead with 18 home runs on the season.

“I thought that infused some life into us,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Alas, it wouldn’t last, the Dodgers instead going quiet the rest of the night in a 3-1 rubber-match loss to the New York Mets.

They were doomed by bad defense early, the Mets scoring three early runs with the help of two Dodgers errors. They were frustrated by wasted opportunities at the plate later, hitting into three double plays for a second consecutive game.

It sent the team to a series defeat in the weekend’s rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series. It also dropped them to 3-6 in their last nine games and 9-11 in their last 20.

Really, outside of their 8-0 start to the season, they’ve been little better than a .500 team, going just 24-21 since then (even with another seven-game winning streak mixed in to that stretch).

And while they’re still in first place in the NL West, and trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees for the best record in baseball, they aren’t playing like a team anywhere near that distinction.

“Tonight was one of those nights that we just gave them extra outs, and they took advantage,” Roberts said.

“It’s been pretty frustrating,” echoed third baseman Max Muncy. “Just keep shooting ourselves in the foot.”

There was no bigger self-inflicted wound than the one Muncy suffered in the bottom of the first.

After two strikeouts from Landon Knack to start the inning, Juan Soto hit a sharp grounder to third that Muncy bobbled on a high hop, recovering too late to throw Soto out at first.

It was Muncy’s eighth error of the season, second-most among MLB third basemen, and first not to come on a throw.

“It’s one of those things where I’m just really not good defensively right now,” Muncy said. “Not going to shy away from it, but all I can do is keep showing up every day, working on it, trying to figure things out, trying to get better. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

On Sunday, however, there was nothing Muncy could do.

One pitch later, Pete Alonso whacked a hanging curveball from Knack for a two-run homer. The Mets (32-21) wouldn’t squander the lead the rest of the way.

“We were trying to get it down a little bit, and obviously left it up,” Knack said. “I would say he’s a little more aggressive with runners on, so was able to take advantage of it.”

As Alonso rounded the bases, Muncy stared stoicly into the distance.

“It makes you feel like the game is on your shoulders. That’s how I feel, at least,” Muncy said. “It’s a play that needs to be made, and I should have made it. It’s just a frustrating one.”

There were plenty of other moments, however, that left the Dodgers (32-21) shaking their head.

After Ohtani’s leadoff homer, their offense had the chance to add on more. Mookie Betts reached on an error. Freddie Freeman moved him to third with a double. When Will Smith followed with a fly ball to center field, it was deep enough for Betts to break for home. At least, that’s how it seemed.

Instead, Mets center fielder Tyrone Taylor delivered a strike to the plate. And after Betts was initially ruled safe on a feet-first slide, a Mets challenge got the call overturned. A chance to build some early breathing room for Knack had disappeared. And despite repeated opportunities to claw back later, the Dodgers failed to scratch anything else across the plate.

In the fourth inning, Freeman hit a leadoff single … only for Smith to promptly ground into a double-play.

Later in the inning, Teoscar Hernández doubled and Muncy walked to put two aboard … only for Andy Pages to hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in left.

In the fifth, the Dodgers generated their best chance against Senga … only for the right-hander to induce a two-out grounder from Smith that ended the threat.

In the sixth, Muncy drew a one-out walk … only for Pages to roll into another double play, the 42nd for the Dodgers this season (fifth-most in the majors).

“I think that the tale is we’ve just got to play clean baseball, have a good offensive approach, because we’re going to see some good pitching,” Roberts said, with the Dodgers in the midst of a 29-game stretch against nothing but playoff-contending teams.

“Case in point is Shohei didn’t get a fifth at-bat [tonight], because they made plays and they got a couple double plays and things like that. All that stuff matters. So that stuff that’s really highlighted when you’re playing against good ballclubs.”

The Mets scored their only other run against Knack — who delivered just the 14th six-inning start of the season for the club — in the third. With one on and one out, Mark Vientos hit a hard grounder up the middle that Betts impressively got to from shortstop. But then Betts misfired on a flip to second base, sailing the ball over teammate Tommy Edman’s head to put runners on the corner. A fielder’s choice from Soto in the next at-bat led to a run.

The 3-1 deficit proved too much for the Dodgers to surmount — ending a day that had begun with so much optimism around Ohtani’s two-way talents with a dud of a performance and frustrating series loss in Queens.