Ohtani does his part, but Dodgers' free fall continues

Emergency start in place of Glasnow isn’t enough as bats remain quiet against Orioles.

- BY JACK HARRIS

JACKSON HOLLIDAY of the Orioles slides to score a run ahead of the tag by the Dodgers' Ben Casparius.

In one corner of the room, Tanner Scott stared blankly into his locker, trying to come to grips with yet another game he let get away.

Across from him, Dalton Rushing propped a pair of crutches under his arms, limping out of sight with the Dodgers’ latest injury.

On the opposite wall, Freddie Freeman got dressed at his stall; taking in the somber scene in the visiting clubhouse at Camden Yards, while trying to think of exactly what to say about the team’s troubling, tumbling, torturous current play.

"Sometimes, you just don’t have the right answers," Freeman said, as reporters gathered around for a familiar line of questions. "Not going to sit here and give some cliches. We're just not playing very good. There’s no sugarcoating this. We need to figure this out, and figure this out quick.”

Indeed, just when the Dodgers’ second-half slump seemed like it couldn't get any worse, Friday delivered a new set of headaches.

Scheduled starting pitcher Tyler Glasnow was scratched in the afternoon with back tightness, forcing Shohei Ohtani to pitch on just five hours’ notice.

Rushing exited early after fouling a ball painfully off his right shin, leaving the Dodgers without both their starting backstop (Will Smith remains sidelined with a bone bruise on his hand) or his backup (X-rays on Rushing’s leg were negative, but he will also need a CT scan) for at least the next few days.

And then, of course, there was the game: A 241 walk-off loss to the last-place Baltimore Orioles that sent the slumping Dodgers to a fourth straight defeat.

“We can sit here after every game and talk about what we need to do,” Freeman said. “It’s just, we got to do it.”