Dodgers’ bullpen gives up late home runs in loss to Blue Jays

LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers were in good position to sweep a team that mattered on Sunday afternoon, but the Toronto Blue Jays weren’t going down that easily.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger hit back-to-back solo home runs in the eighth inning and Ernie Clement hit a tie-breaking homer in the ninth to help the Blue Jays salvage a 5-4 win in the finale of the three-game series at Dodger Stadium.

Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman blasted home runs for the Dodgers, who combined to outscore the Blue Jays 14-2 in the first two games of the series.

The Dodgers hadn’t swept a team with a winning record this season and entered the series 4-11 against the MLB’s other division leaders.

Tyler Glasnow recovered from a rocky start and departed after allowing two runs and four hits in 5⅔ innings, striking out eight and walking four against the AL East leaders.

“This is frustrating because I felt there is just no way we should lose this game today, getting the pitching performance that we got from Glas,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “(The Blue Jays) expended everyone in their pen, and we had them on the ropes numerous times, and for us not to win today is frustrating.”

The Dodgers didn’t have any difficulty hitting the ball hard against Blue Jays left-hander Eric Lauer, who came in 7-2 in 12 career starts against the Dodgers with a 2.63 ERA.

They knocked him out after three innings, touching him up for three runs and six hits.

Blake Treinen took over in the eighth with the Dodgers leading 3-2, but Guerrero homered to left-center on an 0-and-2 pitch. Barger went deep to right-center field on another sweeper.

“You get Vladdy 0-2 and you hang a sweeper,” Roberts said. “Obviously, a lot of power, and then you try to go to a backdoor breaking ball to Barger and it was middle-middle.”

Treinen said his location should have been better.

“You give good hitters pitches right down the middle, they’re going to do damage,” he said. “Sometimes, we get away with making bad locations that turn into outs. They made me pay for it, and it cost us the game.”

The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in their half of the eighth, and Freeman drew his second bases-loaded walk of the game to tie it 4-4.

Alex Vesia (2-2) then started the ninth for the Dodgers and immediately gave up the tie-breaking long ball to Clement.

“We take a lot of pride in our bullpen, and for us not to get it done sucks,” Vesia said.

Toronto reliever Jeff Hoffman began the ninth by walking Andy Pages and Max Muncy. After a sacrifice bunt by Alex Freeland, No. 9 hitter Alex Call also walked, bringing up Ohtani.

The Blue Jays went to rookie left-hander Mason Fluharty, who struck out Ohtani and got Mookie Betts to ground out.

“We were creating opportunities,” Muncy said. “It’s not an easy staff over there to do that against, so we were doing the first part of it, we just weren’t cashing in.”

After a one-out walk to Bo Bichette in the first, Guerrero hit a line drive just over the outstretched glove of Call in left for a double, scoring Bichette from first for a 1-0 lead.

Glasnow got the second out on a hard lineout to right before striking out Ty France to end the inning.

Ohtani followed with the 23rd leadoff home run of his career and 41st overall this season, a line drive into the seats in right, tying the score 1-1.

Betts was caught stealing following a walk, but on the next pitch, Freeman went the other way for a solo home run into the stands in left for a 2-1 lead.

The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the second. Lauer fell behind 3-0 to Will Smith before he flew out to shallow right to extend his hitless streak to a season-long 0-for-14. Lauer then threw four straight balls to Freeman, forcing in a run and making it 3-1.

Glasnow got out of a bases-loaded one-out jam in the second by getting leadoff hitter Nathan Lukes to ground into a double play. After a 12-pitch third inning, Glasnow ended the fourth with another double play grounder.

“Early on, not really feeling in rhythm, just kind of moving slow,” Glasnow said.

Toronto cut the lead to 3-2 in the sixth after Bichette led off with a single, took second on a comebacker by Guerrero and scored on a two-out soft single to right by France.

Glasnow then exited and was replaced by Anthony Banda, who got Daulton Varsho to fly out.

Justin Wrobleski got the first two outs of the seventh before Ben Casparius came in and got the final out.

Treinen then came through the bullpen gates in the eighth, and the lead was soon gone.