LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers acquired Craig Kimbrel so they would have something to which they had been accustomed — a veteran closer to hand the ball to in ninth innings.
But it seems instead they got something with which they are also familiar — a veteran closer who isn’t quite what he used to be.
Kimbrel entered a tie game Sunday afternoon and gave up two runs in the ninth as the Cleveland Guardians came from behind to beat the Dodgers 5-3.
Over his past 13 games, Kimbrel has allowed 12 runs in 12 1/3 innings. He has been charged with a run in eight of those appearances, allowing 24 baserunners.
Sunday’s game started to unravel when Kimbrel walked Oscar Gonzalez with one out in the ninth. Josh Naylor followed and sliced a ball down the right field line.
Before Sunday, Eddy Alvarez had played a total of seven innings in the outfield as a big-leaguer — on Friday — and infrequently in the minor leagues. With Mookie Betts on the Injured List with a cracked rib, Alvarez started in right field for the second time in this series Sunday.
He dropped a fly ball in the second inning, leading to the Guardians’ first run. Naylor’s line drive might have been catchable only with Betts in right field — and possibly wearing a jet pack. It dropped in to put runners at second and third.
An intentional walk loaded the bases and Andres Gimenez drove in the go-ahead run with a single through the middle. Ernie Clement drove in an insurance run with a sacrifice fly.
The June gloom that has descended on the Dodgers’ offense continues to throw shade. While going 7-9 this month, the Dodgers have scored just 3 1/2 runs per game while batting .234 (127 for 543) as a team. Only three teams (the Tigers, Angels and A’s) went into Sunday having scored fewer runs this month than the Dodgers.
They did manage to put up single runs in the second and third innings Sunday on a two-out RBI double by Gavin Lux and a solo home run by Freddie Freeman.
That was enough to build a 2-1 lead behind Andrew Heaney in his first start since April 17.
Two months after being sidelined by a sore shoulder, Heaney picked up where he left off. Through his first five innings Sunday, he hadn’t allowed an earned run as a Dodger (in three starts). The Indians did get an unearned run in the second inning after Alvarez dropped the fly ball.
Heaney struck out seven in those first five innings. But his first pitch of the sixth inning, a slider at the bottom of the strike zone, was golfed into the left-field pavilion by Gonzalez for his first big-league home run.
That left the game tied when Alvarez singled with one out in the seventh and stole second base. Lux struck out but Trea Turner bounced a ground ball up the middle. Indians second baseman Andres Gimenez flagged it down. With no chance of throwing Turner out at first, Gimenez nonetheless tried to make a leaping, spinning throw. It was predictably off target and got past first baseman Owen Miller, allowing Alvarez to atone for his error and score the go-ahead run.
The Guardians matched that in the eighth when Alex Vesia gave up a leadoff single to Steven Kwan. A sacrifice bunt moved him to second base and Daniel Hudson replaced Vesia with two outs to face pinch-hitter Richie Palacios.
Palacios lashed a double just inside the right-field line to tie the game and set up the ninth-inning decision.
