The Dodgers roster might look significantly different in the wake of five additions before Tuesday’s trade deadline.
But in a 6-5 walk-off loss to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, the team’s recent on-field scuffles seemed eerily unchanged.
Amid several weeks of blown leads and other close calls from the Dodgers’ overworked bullpen, the team squandered another late advantage in its series opener at Petco Park, when right-hander Blake Treinen gave up two solo home runs that tied the score in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Up to that point, the Dodgers had appeared to be cruising to their first post-deadline win.
They scored five runs in a first inning punctuated by Cavan Biggio’s two-run blast. They got a seven-inning, three-run start from staff ace Tyler Glasnow, his longest outing in more than a month.
Read more: Plaschke: Jack Flaherty gives Dodgers dramatic trade deadline victory
And when Treinen took the mound for the ninth-inning save, protecting a 5-3 lead, the Dodgers were on the verge of putting further distance between themselves and the second-place Padres, who had climbed back within 6½ games of their Southern California rivals in the National League West standings.
Instead, Manny Machado hit a leadoff dinger to left center. Jackson Merrill followed with a tying blast to right two batters later.
Then in the 10th, pinch-hitter Donovan Solano walked it off with a game-winning single against Alex Vesia, dropping the Dodgers to 11-12 since the start of July.
The good news for the Dodgers is that help is on the way.
Of the Dodgers’ five new players — starting pitcher Jack Flaherty, utilitymen Tommy Edman and Amed Rosario, outfielder Kevin Kiermaier and reliever Michael Kopech — only Kopech was with the team Tuesday. And manager Dave Roberts didn’t want to throw him into a late-game fire on his first day with the team.
Edman’s debut won’t come for at least a few weeks, as he is rehabbing from a sprained ankle. Rosario and Kiermaier were en route to join the team Tuesday, but will arrive this week. Flaherty will likely make his Dodgers debut this weekend during a series in Oakland.
In the meantime, the Dodgers — who also remained without Freddie Freeman, who is on the family emergency list — fell victim to a familiar fate, losing in walk-off fashion for the fourth time in the last three weeks, while blowing a five-run lead for the third time in 13 games.
“There’s obviously going to be some tough stretches,” Treinen, who also…