(Photo credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images)

With their National League West lead having dwindled down to just two games over the San Diego Padres, the Los Angeles Dodgers begin a key week against their Southern California rivals with three games against the Los Angeles Angels in the Freeway Series beginning Monday night in Anaheim, Calif.

The Dodgers then return home to host the Padres, winners of 11 of their past 14 games, for a three-game showdown starting Friday night.

On paper, the games against an Angels team that has dropped four of its past five games and is six games below the .500 mark would appear to be the easy part of the schedule. But the Angels swept a three-game series at Dodger Stadium in May, outscoring Dave Roberts' squad 23-15 in the process.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-7, 2.51 ERA) will make his first career start against the Angels in Monday's opener and will be opposed by fellow right-hander Jose Soriano (7-9, 4.01).

The Dodgers, just 5-5 over their past 10 games, blew a chance to complete a sweep of American League East-leading Toronto with a frustrating 5-4 loss on Sunday. Ernie Clement smashed the first pitch by reliever Alex Vesia in the top of the ninth into the left field bleachers to break a 4-4 tie, and the Dodgers couldn't answer, despite Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman walking the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the ninth.

Rookie left-hander Mason Fluharty, the eighth Toronto pitcher, relieved Hoffman and struck out Shohei Ohtani and then got Mookie Betts to ground into a fielder's choice to end the game. It was the first major league save for Fluharty.

The Dodgers had 10 hits, including Ohtani's 41st homer in the first inning, and were gifted 13 walks by Toronto pitchers. However, the Dodgers went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left a season-high 16 men on base.

'I just felt there's no way we should lose this game today,' Roberts said, 'We had them on the ropes numerous times. For us not to win today, it's a frustrating one.'

The Angels are six games behind the New York Yankees for the final American League wild-card spot after losing the rubber match of their three-game series at Detroit on Sunday, 9-5. Jack Kochanowicz, who was sent down to Triple-A Salt Lake after the loss, gave up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits, including a three-run homer to Kerry Carpenter, in three innings to suffer his 10th loss of the season.

It was the 13th consecutive start without a win for Kochanowicz dating back to, ironically, a 6-2 victory over the Dodgers on May 16.Soriano has made one career relief appearance against the Dodgers and is 0-0 with a 13.50 ERA.

Soriano has lost back-to-back starts to the Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays. After Soriano allowed seven runs on seven hits in four innings in a 7-3 loss to the Rays on Tuesday, Angels pitching coach Barry Enright enlisted the help of Hall of Fame member Pedro Martinez to discuss with Soriano how to mix up his pitch selection better. The Angels believed Soriano was becoming too reliant on throwing his 97.1 mph sinker, which has made up 51 percent of his pitches this season.

'One of the underrated aspects of Pedro's career was as much power as he had, he had precision and could pitch too, maybe better than anybody ever,' interim Angels manager Ray Montgomery told the Orange County Register. 'I think Sori has that capability. He just has to be able to harness in the moment, and be able to step off the gas as much as he wants to step on it.'

Ohtani, who won two of his three Most Valuable Player awards while with the Angels in 2021 and 2023, is scheduled to start Wednesday afternoon's series finale for the Dodgers against Angels veteran Kyle Hendricks.

--Field Level Media