Landon Knack has been a human life preserver for the Dodgers, an unsung rookie right-hander who has helped keep the rotation afloat when seas get a little rough.
With Tyler Glasnow, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Clayton Kershaw and Gavin Stone on the injured list, the Dodgers summoned the 27-year-old right-hander from triple A for the fifth time this season, and Knack did what he usually does — give his team a chance to win, this time with a six-inning, two-run, three-hit, eight-strikeout effort.
But Knack’s quality start could not match the one delivered by Matthew Boyd, the Cleveland left-hander who held a prolific Dodgers offense to one run and three hits in six innings of the Guardians’ 3-1 victory in Chavez Ravine on Friday night.
Boyd, in his fifth start back from Tommy John surgery, struck out six and walked none to improve to 2-1 with a 2.20 ERA, his only mistake a center-cut, 89-mph sinker that Shohei Ohtani crushed 413 feet to center field for his National League-leading 45th home run and 100th RBI of the season in the sixth.
Guardians right-hander Hunter Gaddis escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth, and closer Emmanuel Clase retired the side in order with one strikeout in the ninth for his 42nd save.
The Dodgers’ second straight loss — on the heels of Wednesday night’s 10-1 shellacking at the hands of the Angels in Anaheim — reduced their NL West lead over the San Diego Padres to four games.
As if the pregame news of Stone going on the IL because of shoulder inflammation wasn’t jarring enough, the Dodgers absorbed another body blow in the bottom of the first when cleanup hitter Teoscar Hernández was hit in the left foot by an 81-mph slider from Boyd and was in so much pain he was pulled from the game.
Hernández was initially diagnosed with a left-foot contusion. X-rays were negative, but when asked after the game how Hernández was doing, manager Dave Roberts said, “Not great.” Hernández is batting .266 with 28 home runs and 87 RBIs and ranks second on the team with a .287 average with runners in scoring position.
“We’re going to do some scans [on Saturday] to get more information, but he’s as tough as they come, and he could barely move his foot,” Roberts said. “I don’t see how it’s not going to be an IL [situation], but we’ll probably give him a couple of days to see how he comes out of it.”
Knack blanked the American League Central-leading Guardians on one hit and struck out eight through five innings, allowing only one runner to reach second when José Ramírez hit a one-out single in the fourth and stole a base.
No. 9 batter Brayan Rocchio led off the sixth with a single to right, and Roberts chose to let Knack go a third time through the order, even though Cleveland had three left-handed hitters and a switch-hitter coming up and the Dodgers had left-hander Anthony Banda warming in the bullpen.
“I just felt that he was pitching really well,” Roberts said of Knack. “I liked the way he was throwing.”
Knack got Steven Kwan to fly out to center, but Andrés Giménez jumped on a first-pitch fastball that was slightly up but over the middle and drove a two-run homer to right for a 2-0 Cleveland lead. Knack retired Ramírez and Josh Naylor on fly balls to end the inning.
“Just kind of pulled a fastball a little bit, left it a little bit too middle, and he jumped me,” Knack said of the home run pitch. “I was trying to get it away more than anything, and it kind of leaked back over the plate.”
It was the only mistake in the 91-pitch effort from Knack, who is 2-3 with a 3.00 ERA in 11 games, nine of them starts, in five big-league stints. The Dodgers are 3-6 in his starts, but Knack has given the team a chance to win in eight of those games.
“Landon was a star tonight,” Roberts said. “He did everything we hoped for and more. He’s done it all year for us, given his uncertain circumstances, being up and down … six innings, two runs, eight punch-outs, one walk, and he gave us a good chance to win. I’m looking forward to him making his next start,”
Knack didn’t make more than three consecutive starts in his first four stints with the Dodgers, but with the number of starters on the IL, the way Knack is throwing and the way he has navigated the challenges of being shuttled between triple A and the big leagues, he could remain in the rotation for the final three weeks of the regular season.
“It’s really kind of taking it one day at a time,” Knack said. “It’s hard as you continue to go up and down to not think about the future and where you are, but like cliche says, stay where your feet are and continue to work. Anytime I get an opportunity here or there, just show what we can do and keep taking advantage of the opportunities.
“It gives you a lot of confidence to go out there and see how your stuff plays against some of the best teams, some of the best players in the world. The way that I’ve been able to come out here and make pitches against these guys makes me know I belong.”
The Dodgers trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on Ohtani’s sixth-inning homer, but Rocchio burned them again in the eighth, lining a 1-and-0 sinker from Banda into the left-field bullpen for his eighth homer and a 3-1 Cleveland lead.
The Dodgers threatened in the bottom of the eighth when Ohtani lined a one-out single to right and took third on Mookie Betts’ double to left. Freddie Freeman was walked intentionally to load the bases for Chris Taylor, who had replaced Hernández in the first.
Taylor fouled off three two-strike pitches before lining a 104-mph one-hopper to shortstop. Rocchio fielded the ball cleanly and threw to second to start an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
