Much has been made about the fact that the Dodgers starting pitchers have pitched two innings over two games and given up 9 – yes 9 – earned runs. There is not much that hasn’t already been written about Clayton Kershaw’s performance Saturday night, but it is clear that Game 1 was over before the Dodgers even got the chance to hit. The same was not true last night.

Rookie Bobby Miller took the mound at Dodger Stadium and allowed the first three Arizona Diamondback batters to reach base before ultimately giving up three runs to begin the game. And while that was an inauspicious start, the Dodgers were second in the Major Leagues in runs scored this season, averaging nearly 5.6 runs/game. A three-run deficit was not insurmountable. And true to form, the Dodgers put two runs on base in the bottom of the first, with J.D. Martinez at the plate. Martinez would homer later in the game to get the Dodgers on the board, but with a runner in scoring position and a chance to tie the game with one swing of the bat, he feebly struck out on a knuckle curve in the dirt. After the Saturday night debacle wherein the Diamondbacks scored six times in the first inning and three more times in the second, squaring the score – or even eking out a single run – in the bottom of the first of Game 2 would have done wonders for the Dodgers’ – and their fans’ – psyche. This was an opportunity lost.

The Dodgers went 1-2-3 in both the second and third innings, and then sandwiched Martinez’s homer in the fourth around three easy outs.

In the fifth inning the Dodgers had two on with one out and MVP-hopeful Mookie Betts at the plate representing the tying run. Betts swung at the first pitch and hit a soft grounder to short. That brought up MVP-hopeful Freddie Freeman with runners on the corners, also representing the tying run. He struck out looking on a nasty knuckle curve right down the middle. Another opportunity lost.

In the sixth inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases with one out and scored their second run on a Kiké Hernández infield single. But with the bases still loaded, James Outman struck out and pinch hitter Kolten Wong grounded out to end the threat. Yet another opportunity lost.

It seemed that the Dodgers’ luck might change in the seventh, when Ryan Thompson couldn’t handle a Betts grounder, sending Freeman to the plate – say it again – representing the tying run. Instead, the guy who hit .331 on the season, the guy who drove in 102 runs, the guy who had an .899 OPS with a runner on first and less than two outs, hit into a rally-killing double-play. Suffice it say, that was an opportunity lost.

In the eighth, Martinez walked with one out, bringing the tying run to the plate, again. This time in the person of Chris Taylor, who hit three homers in a playoff game in the 2021 NLCS. Last night, he grounded into an inning-ending double play. The Dodgers went 1-2-3 in the ninth to close out the game and dig their playoff hole that much deeper.

After two games, the vaunted 1-2 punch of Betts and Freeman is 1-for-13 with an infield single. The Dodgers, as a team, are hitting .167 with runners in scoring position (2-for-12), which is slightly better than .159 team batting average. They are slashing .159/.254/.254 (during the regular season, that was .257/.340/.455). The team has scored a total of four runs over eighteen innings. Even with Koufax and Drysdale on the hill, that type of offense is not going to get the job done in the playoffs. If the Dodgers want to play beyond Wednesday night, they need to worry less about who is on the pitcher’s mound, and worry more about what they do when they step into the batter’s box.