Here’s what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts had to say (Verbatim) following his team’s ugly 11-1 loss to the AL West second place Athletics in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 45,161 on Tuesday night, their first game back home following a ten-game/three-city road trip that took them through Atlanta (2-1), Miami (2-1), and Arizona (2-2):

“Not good… um… I… I… I thought… ah… this was… as far as collectively, this is, you know, as… ah… forgettable as an outing… ah… a compilation of offense… team offense as we’ve seen in quite some time. Um… you know, outside of Will and Michael um… there wasn’t much else, um… so, we’ll… we… we’ll… we got… we’ll respond tomorrow, we got Yamamoto going tomorrow, we’ve got all of the guys in the pen ready to go, so… um… today was one I just want to turn the page on.”

Okay….

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As for those eight Dodgers hits, and as Roberts eluded to, Dodgers left fielder Michael Conforto had three of them (three doubles), catcher Will Smith three of them (three singles), third baseman Kiké Hernández one of them (a single), and center fielder/second baseman Chris Taylor one of them (a double).

That lone Dodgers run was a gift, the result of a fielding error by Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson on a hot grounder off the bat of future Hall of Famer Mookie Betts with one out in the bottom of the third.

Of the Athletics 11 runs, five were surrendered by struggling Dodgers right-hander Landon Knack, who very well may have punched his own ticket back to Triple-A OKC (or Double-A Tulsa).

“I gotta execute a little better,” Knack told reporters postgame.

The 27-year-old Johnson City, TN native and Dodgers second-round draft pick in 2020 out of East Tennessee State University in Johnson City is now 2-1 on the season with a “Not good” 5.89 ERA. But of bigger concern are the 17 home runs he has allowed over the past two seasons, including three this season over his thus far 18.1 innings pitched.

“Not Good” indeed, but “we’ll respond tomorrow.”

Play Ball!

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