Daniel Hudson falters, Dodgers drop second straight to Brewers as NL West lead shrinks

MILWAUKEE — Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia was able to plug a leak in the seventh inning Thursday, escaping a two-on, no-outs jam to preserve a one-run lead, but the dam broke against right-hander Daniel Hudson, who gave up three runs in the eighth inning of a 6-4 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers in American Family Field.

Hudson entered with a 4-3 lead and allowed the Brewers to load the bases with no outs on Jackson Chourio’s double, Garrett Mitchell’s walk and William Contreras’ infield single. Willy Adames lined an RBI single to left field for a 4-4 tie.

Third baseman Kiké Hernández made a nice diving stop of Tyler Black’s grounder to his left, but his only play was at first base, Mitchell scoring for a 5-4 lead. Rhys Hoskins followed with a grounder that caromed off Hudson’s body to shortstop Miguel Rojas, who got the out at first while Contreras scored for a 6-4 lead.

Milwaukee closer Devin Williams struck out Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani in a one-two-three ninth inning to send the Dodgers to their second straight loss and trim their National League West lead to two games over the idle San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty recovered from a three-run first inning to blank the Brewers over the next four innings, and the Dodgers took a 4-3 lead on Hernández’ clutch two-out RBI single in the sixth.

Reliever Michael Kopech retired the heart of the Brewers order with a strikeout in the bottom of the sixth, increasing his scoreless streak since he was acquired from the Chicago White Sox on July 29 to 7 1/3 innings.

Vesia courted trouble in the seventh when he walked pinch-hitter Gary Sanchez and Hoskins to open the inning, but he escaped the jam with the help of the Brewers and home-plate umpire John Bacon.

Sal Frelick butchered the old “Butcher Boy” play, squaring to bunt and pulling his bat back to swing at Vesia’s first pitch, producing a weak popout to second. Bacon then called an up-and-in 3-and-1 pitch a strike to Joey Ortiz, who flied out to right field. Vesia struck out Brice Turang with a 94-mph full-count fastball to end the inning.

There were so many fireworks exploding above the field and under the enclosed roof in the bottom of the first that it took a solid two innings for the smoke to dissipate.

Turang led off the inning with a double to left field, and Chourio followed with a two-run home run that traveled 421 feet to left-center. Nine pitches into his third start for the Dodgers, Flaherty was already down 2-0.

Mitchell struck out on a 77-mph curve, but cleanup man Contreras drove a full-count slider from Flaherty 417 feet to left field for his 16th homer of the season and a 3-0 Milwaukee lead.

The Dodgers took advantage of some sloppy defense to score two unearned runs in the second, Adames turning Rojas’ potential inning-ending double-play grounder to short into a second-and-third, one out situation when his throw to second sailed into right field for an error.

Jason Heyward drove in a run with a groundout to second, and Andy Pages cut the deficit to 3-2 with an RBI double over the head of the leaping Chourio, who actually got the tip of his glove on the ball before colliding with the wall.

Consecutive two-out singles by Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Gavin Lux off Brewers starter Tobias Myers in the top of the third pulled the Dodgers even 3-3.

Flaherty shook off the rocky first inning by retiring 12 of the next 13 batters after Contreras’ homer. Not until the fifth did he run into trouble, when he walked Ortiz with two outs and gave up a single to Turang that put runners on first and third. But Flaherty struck out Chourio with a nasty 79-mph curve to end the inning.

Lux started the Dodgers’ tie-breaking rally in the sixth with a leadoff walk, and he took second on Rojas’ single to right. Heyward flied out to right, advancing Lux to third. Pages lined out to third for the second out.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy summoned right-hander Elvis Peguero to face Hernández, who grounded an opposite-field single to right to score Lux for a 4-3 lead.