ANAHEIM, Calif. _ One strike away from a victory Friday night, the Dodgers let a one-run lead and a game slip through their hands _ literally _ on a scorching evening at Angel Stadium.
Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen couldn't put away Shohei Ohtani with two outs in the ninth inning, walking the Angels slugger after getting ahead with two quick strikes. An ill-advised throw by catcher Yasmani Grandal on Ohtani's stolen base sailed into center field for an error.
David Fletcher tied the score with a two-out, RBI single to left field and scored from first when right fielder Yasiel Puig, after bobbling Ian Kinsler's bloop hit, bounced a throw past Grandal for an error.
Jansen did not back up the plate. Fletcher, who was initially held at third, raced home with the winning run to give the Angels a 3-2 walk-off victory.
"This was a frustrating one," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after his team fell a game behind first-place Arizona in the NL West. "To give it away like that is tough."
It was Jansen's first blown save since April 17, and it came on a night the Dodgers got stout relief from left-hander Scott Alexander, who struck out Albert Pujols with the bases loaded to end the sixth and added a scoreless seventh, and Daniel Hudson, who threw a scoreless eighth.
Matt Kemp drove in both Dodgers runs with RBI singles, but starter Kenta Maeda was denied a win after giving up one run and three hits in 5 2/3 innings, striking out nine and walking two.
Maeda picked apart the Angels with clinical precision through five one-hit, scoreless innings, teasing them with pitches off the corners that were hittable but impossible to barrel up. Then when he'd get ahead in the count, Maeda would expand the strike zone and get the Angels to chase.
The fifth inning was a prime example of Maeda's mastery. First, he struck out Pujols swinging at a 2-and-2, two-seam fastball that started on the inner half of the plate and bore so far and hard inside that it nearly hit the slugger.
Maeda jammed Ohtani with a 1-2 fastball, inducing a weak popup to shortstop. Up stepped Luis Valbuena, who swung through three pitches, a pair of shoe-high sliders and an 85-mph, down-and-away changeup that Valbuena couldn't have hit with a 45-inch bat.
Maeda took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth, when trouble finally arrived, Kinsler leading off with a single to left and No. 9 hitter Jose Briceno singling off Maeda's glove.
Maeda struck out Kole Calhoun looking at a full-count fastball. Andrelton Simmons flied to deep left, the runners advancing, and Trout was awarded first base, his major league-leading 15th intentional walk.
With a 1-and-0 count on Justin Upton, Kinsler got broke for home, stopping about halfway down the line. Maeda, who was working out of a windup, rushed his delivery and was called for a balk, Kinsler scoring to cut the lead to 2-1.
Upton drew a walk to load the bases, but Alexander replaced Maeda and struck out Pujols with a 95-mph fastball to end the inning.
The 108-degree temperature at first pitch was the hottest in Angel Stadium history, passing the previous high of 106 degrees, set in a noon start against Boston on Sept. 4, 1988, and a 6 p.m. start against Oakland on Sept. 3, 2007.
The Dodgers, with late-afternoon temperatures peaking at 113 degrees, shortened their on-field batting practice. The Angels, who returned from Seattle, their last stop on a four-city, 10-game trip, well past midnight Thursday, stretched in the clubhouse and hit in the indoor cage.
"When it gets to this extreme, I think less is more," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said before the game. "We'll get ready inside, but we'll be ready to play."
They didn't look ready. Pujols booted Joc Pederson's game-opening grounder for an error, and Pederson took second on Briceno's passed ball.
The Angels snapped out of their haze. Calhoun raced in from right field and made a diving catch of Max Muncy's liner, and starter Felix Pena struck out Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger to escape the jam.
Pena retired the side in order in the second and third innings and struck out Muncy and Turner to start the fourth. Bellinger followed with a high drive over the head of Upton, who got turned around as he went back on the ball in left field.
Upton, his back to home plate, lunged toward the top of the fence but wasn't close to a ball that nearly hit him on the left thigh. Kemp looped an 83-mph slider into center field for a single and a 1-0 Dodgers lead.
The Dodgers pushed the lead to 2-0 in the sixth. Turner walked off Pena with one out, and Bellinger walked against reliever Noe Ramirez. Kemp lined a single to left to score Turner and boost his team-leading RBI total to 57.
