Dodgers’ depleted lineup gets shut out in loss to Astros

HOUSTON — Math is hard.

The Dodgers keep subtracting. A lineup that has been without Max Muncy since May 16 and Mookie Betts since June 17 lost Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor earlier this week and got even shorter on Friday when Freddie Freeman left the team to be with his family during his son’s illness.

Those left behind didn’t offer much resistance to Houston Astros starter Framber Valdez on Friday night. He held them to four hits and struck out 10 while taking a shutout into the seventh inning as the Astros beat the Dodgers, 5-0, in the opener of their three-game weekend series at Minute Maid Park.

“It’s a challenge,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of trying to win with a depleted lineup that struck out 15 times. “Framber was good tonight, so you knew it was gonna be a tall order to try to put together innings and build innings.

“But yeah, you have the guys you have, and you have to believe they’re gonna find a way to scratch some runs across.”

Shohei Ohtani led off the game with a double, hustling into second base even though center fielder Jake Meyers cut the ball off in left-center.

The next 16 Dodgers went down in order against Valdez, half of them on strikeouts (including six in a row at one point).

Gavin Lux ended the string with a one-out single in the sixth inning and Valdez loaded the bases by walking Ohtani and Will Smith. But he struck out Teoscar Hernandez and got Andy Pages to fly out to end the threat.

Valdez left with runners at the corners and one out in the seventh. Nick Ahmed struck out against Astros reliever Bryan Abreu and the Dodgers had their only run taken away on a replay review.

Bregman handled Lux’s ground ball near second base, but Kiké Hernandez rounded the base too far and Bregman tagged him out to end the inning. It was first ruled that Miguel Vargas had scored from third before the out was recorded. But even that small pleasure was taken away from the Dodgers when the Astros challenged the play and a review ruled Vargas didn’t make it home in time.

“That was one of those situations where I think he felt that Bregman vacated, the third baseman, so he might have thought there was gonna be a play at first base, and then you realize that he still had the baseball, and Peña was over there at third base,” Roberts said. “So we got caught in no man’s land, and Vargy didn’t run through the plate to score that run.

“He was watching the play. That’s something he won’t do again, because we talked about that.”

If the results from a depleted Dodgers lineup are to be expected, Gavin Stone’s regression in July is troubling given his season-long reliability in a rotation that has had its own drainage.

Stone gave up nine hits in his six innings, including home runs to Alex Bregman (a solo homer in the third) and Jon Singleton (a two-run homer in the fourth).

Stone ended June with a complete-game shutout of the White Sox and a legitimate case for inclusion on the National League All-Star team with a 9-2 record and 2.73 ERA. Hitters had batted .227 with six home runs in 15 starts against Stone, who went at least five innings in 13 of those starts, seven or more five times.

July has been a different story for Stone. He has a 6.27 ERA in four starts this month and batters are hitting .369 against him with five home runs in just 18⅔ innings.

“I feel good. … Just good lineups,” Stone said of his July regression.

Stone dismissed any question of fatigue as he nears a career high in innings – “I probably feel better now than what I did in the beginning of the year” – but did acknowledge hitters have probably adjusted to him.

“There are some opportunities where you just have to make better pitches and that’s pretty much it, just making better pitches in certain situations,” he said.

Roberts pointed to Stone working from behind in the count more often recently and failing to land his changeup for strikes as often as two factors in his struggles this month.

“It’s a learning curve,” Roberts said. “Like I told him in the dugout, I’m sure he’s frustrated with giving up runs. But for a young pitcher to be able to not give away the farm and keep us relatively in the ballgame and to not go four innings but to go six innings – that’s a positive.

“We’re going to continue to run him out there. He’s got to continue to grow and get better. When you’re learning on the fly, it’s not easy to do. It’s not easy. As we know, those hitters are good over there.”