Dodgers’ bullpen fails to finish off red-hot Cubs

LOS ANGELES — Prior to Friday night’s game against the Chicago Cubs, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he wanted to see starting pitcher Emmet Sheehan take a step forward.

Sheehan responded by turning in his best performance of the season, but the bullpen faltered in the Dodgers’ 6-4 loss to the red-hot Cubs, who won their 10th in a row.

Sheehan allowed one run on four hits in 6⅓ innings and matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts – the fourth time he has done that.

Roberts pushed Sheehan deeper into the game than he has all season and sent him back to the mound for the seventh inning despite having already thrown 93 pitches. Sheehan allowed a single to Moisés Ballesteros with one out and was lifted after throwing a career-high 101 pitches with a 4-0 lead.

That’s when things started to unravel for the Dodgers.

The trio of Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott allowed five runs in 2⅔ innings, with the latter two giving up home runs.

“He did a great job. It’s just unfortunate we couldn’t get him a win because he pitched his tail off,” Roberts said of Sheehan. “He earned the right to go into the seventh inning. It’s something that we can build on.”

Getting ahead in the count is often a recipe for success.

“I think just getting ahead with my fastball and slider, making them respect the slider in the zone,” Sheehan said. “They weren’t really coming off the fastball so I thought keep them off-balance with sliders.”

Vesia relieved Sheehan, walked Pete Crow-Armstrong and gave up a two-run triple to Dansby Swanson that went just over the glove of center fielder Andy Pages. On the ensuing at-bat, Vesia allowed a run-scoring single to Nico Hoerner.

“We had two outs and a guy on first base with a 4-0 lead,” Roberts said. “Alex knows he has to get PCA out. He can’t walk him.”

Prior to Vesia allowing the inherited runner from Sheehan to score, Dodgers’ starting pitchers hadn’t allowed a run for 26 innings going back to Tuesday’s game against the San Francisco Giants.

Vesia struck out Michael Busch and stranded a runner on second base to keep the Dodgers’ 4-3 lead intact.

Treinen entered the game in the eighth and gave up a leadoff home run to Alex Bregman to tie the score at 4-4.

Scott, who earned the save in Thursday afternoon’s 3-0 victory over the Giants, allowed a leadoff single in the ninth to Crow-Armstrong and a two-run home run to Swanson to give the Cubs (17-9) a 6-4 lead.

The Dodgers’ bullpen has blown five saves in 12 opportunities and has the fifth-worst save percentage in the National League.

Roberts had no regrets about his bullpen usage in the latter innings.

“I wouldn’t do anything different,” Roberts said. “We all got to do our parts and tonight we just didn’t get it done.”

Cubs pitcher Jameson Taillon matched Sheehan’s dominance his first time through the Dodgers’ lineup, but with two outs in the third inning, Will Smith hit a three-run home run to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.

The Dodgers (17-9) added to their lead in the fourth when Max Muncy hit a double and later scored on a RBI single by Hyeseong Kim.

Kim went 2 for 3 on Friday and is hitting .351 with a .918 OPS since being recalled from Triple-A on April 5 to replace injured shortstop Mookie Betts.

“He’s a guy that it seems like every time he gets out there, he does something to help us win,” Roberts said of Kim. “He’s always prepared and he is a spark plug for us on both sides of the baseball.”

Pages had two outfield assists, both of which resulted in runners being thrown out at the plate. He threw out Busch at home plate in the fourth inning and threw a perfect relay throw to Kim, who followed with a perfect one-hopper to Smith to get Ian Happ at the plate in the eighth.