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Edwin Diaz blows another save as Dodgers lose to Brewers

August 14, 2026

LOS ANGELES — When the Dodgers signed Edwin Diaz last winter, they gave him the ninth inning.

They might have to take it back.

Diaz’s struggles since returning from elbow surgery continued Thursday night with his third blown save in his past four appearances. Charged with protecting a two-run lead in the ninth inning, Diaz gave up four consecutive singles and the lead was gone. When Alex Vesia replaced Diaz and gave up the fifth single of the inning, the Milwaukee Brewers had a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Dodgers.

The win in the opener of a four-game series created a two-game gap between the Brewers (75-47) and Dodgers (73-49) for the best record in the National League. The Atlanta Braves (idle Thursday) sit between them.

“I think my fastball command today – I was throwing strikes, but right in the middle,” Diaz said. “Every big league hitter can hit it right in the middle, (even if you) throw 200 miles an hour. I gotta get better at that.”

Last weekend when he couldn’t hold a ninth-inning lead against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Diaz blamed it on his slider. He only throws those two pitches.

“I just gotta find a way to pitch better,” Diaz said. “I’ve been in this position before, and I’ve been able to find a way to get better. I just gotta sit down with the pitching coaches to see what I’m missing and what they say to see if we can fix it and keep working hard.”

If that takes a demotion from the ninth-inning role, Diaz said that was up to the manager and coaching staff.

“I just gotta see what they wanna do,” he said when prompted. “I wanna do the best thing for the team. At the end of the day, if they give me the ball in the ninth I will try to do my job. If they give me the ball in another inning, I will try to do my job. Gotta get better, be consistent.”

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts reacted quickly to suggestions that he might have to demote Diaz from the closer role with the same response he had to questions about Diaz’s struggles last weekend.

“Give me another option,” Roberts snapped. “I can’t just say change (and use Diaz) in lower leverage, I have to have other options. And to be quite honest, none of those guys really are throwing the baseball great. So that’s just kind of the way it is.

“We’ve got to get other guys on track to even have that be even a valid conversation to be honest with you.”

Tanner Scott did convert 16 of 18 save opportunities in Diaz’s absence and retired the only batter he faced in the eighth inning on Thursday.

At the start of this homestand, Roberts charged his team with playing with more urgency – and pointed that same finger at himself, saying he would manage with more urgency going forward. This would seem to call for that kind of response.

“Who’s the other option?” Roberts repeated. “I mean, you look back at the last week and guys have struggled. I’m not going to sit here and play carousel and chase my tail and say, when the guy’s struggling, and then when he doesn’t pitch well, then why are you pitching him? So I don’t do that. You know, everyone’s got a role. They all have jobs to do, and they all have to do their job. That’s it.”

The Dodgers had taken a 4-2 lead in the sixth inning on a three-run, pinch-hit home run by Max Muncy. The home run was Muncy’s 131st at Dodger Stadium, moving him past Eric Karros for the stadium record.

That seemed to reward Roki Sasaki for his persistence if not his precision. The Dodgers’ starting pitcher played with fire all night. He had baserunners in five of his six innings and threw 101 pitches in that time (three short of his MLB career-high), barely more than half strikes (54).

But he got burned only once.

Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out in the fourth inning. Sasaki struck out William Contreras for the second out but lost connection with the strike zone after that. He walked Joey Ortiz on four pitches to force in one run then walked David Hamilton on five pitches to force in another.

Sasaki struck out Jackson Chourio to escape the jam and got through two more innings.

“I feel like my stuff wasn’t really good today,” Sasaki said through his interpreter, citing problems in his delivery. “It was not coming out well, and also I couldn’t get strikes out either.”

The two gifted runs looked like they might be more than the Dodgers’ offense could overcome.

They had just two hits in the first four innings against Brewers starter Shane Drohan and didn’t score until the fifth when Miguel Rojas walked to start the inning. Rojas moved up on a ground out then raced home when Ben Rortvedt lined a single just over the glove of leaping third baseman Andrew Vaughn.

Rojas did not beat the throw home from left fielder Jackson Chourio, but Brewers catcher Contreras lost the ball as he tried to put the tag on a diving Rojas.

That cut the Brewers’ lead in half.

Finally in the sixth inning, Tommy Edman and Freddie Freeman drew back-to-back walks, ending Drohan’s night. Antonio Senzatela came in and struck out Teoscar Hernandez for the second out of the inning.

A familiar face from his days in the Colorado Rockies’ rotation, Senzatela moved to the bullpen this season and was traded to the Brewers at the deadline. Along the way, he gained speed – his fastball has averaged 97.3 mph this season (3 mph more than his career average).

He tried to slip one of those fastballs past Muncy, who was pinch-hitting for Rojas. The full-count fastball came in at 100.1 mph – and went out at 105.7 mph. Muncy crushed it to give the Dodgers the lead despite having just four hits in the game and no baserunners after Muncy’s homer.

Diaz gave it back in the ninth. In seven appearances since returning from three months on the injured list, Diaz has given up runs in all but one – eight runs in all on 12 hits and three walks in 5⅔ innings.

“I know people don’t like to hear it, but it’s baseball,” Roberts said. “Offenses go in lulls, bullpens go in lulls. Sometimes you get in a run where the starting pitching isn’t there. So it is what happens. It just doesn’t feel good. It’s certainly more highlighted when the ’pen doesn’t throw the baseball well, because it costs you games, typically. But they’re all working hard. They’re all preparing.

“But yeah, at the end of the day, we all have to do our jobs. All of us.”

Orange County Register

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Edwin Diaz blows another save as Dodgers lose to Brewers

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