Dodgers funk continues as slumping offense, pitching both falter in loss to Giants

Once again, the Dodgers projected confidence in the wake of defeat Monday night.The way things have been going lately, that’s about the only thing they’ve been able to do consistently well.“We’re back-to-back champions for a reason,” third baseman Max Muncy said after a 9-3 loss to the Giants.“We find ways to get out of this.”“We just have too much talent and too much desire to keep doing this for much longer,” echoed manager Dave Roberts, despite his team losing for the 13th time in the last 22 games.“It’s not fun when you’re going through it.

But you’ve just got to remain positive,” Roberts later added.“It will turn.

It always has.”As encouraging as those might quotes sound, they did little to dampen the sting of yet another frustrating performance in Monday’s series opener against their division rivals at Dodger Stadium.This time, the Dodgers’ slumping offense not only remained in a funk, but their previously stout pitching staff didn’t offer much support either.After trading runs with the Giants early, and tying the score at 3-3 when Muncy hit his team-leading 11th homer of the year in the bottom of the sixth, the Dodgers’ bullpen suffered a rare late-game implosion when Alex Vesia was charged with three runs in a decisive seventh-inning rally.Not even the return of Mookie Betts, who went 1-for-5 after being activated from a month-long stint on the injured list with a strained oblique, could help them recover down the stretch.“The effort, the focus was there,” Roberts said.“I thought the fight was there.”Alas, the team’s recent tailspin only continued to get worse.He yielded three-straight one-out hits, then walked Rafael Devers in a full-count to plate the go-ahead run.“We’re not taking this lightly right now,” Muncy said.

“But it’s also trying not to overreact to something still early in May.”For a while on Monday, the Dodgers (24-17) seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough against the equall...