Manny Machado homer helps Orioles snap Dodgers’ winning streak

Pedro Baez interrupted his throwing as the uninvited object approached his view. Baez had spent about five minutes loosening up inside the Dodgers bullpen, waiting for the signal from Manager Dave Roberts to replace starter Kenta Maeda. Before the call arrived, Baez craned his neck upward to watch Baltimore Orioles star Manny Machado demolish a baseball in his general vicinity.

The three-run home run landed several feet to Baez’s left, near the top of the left-field pavilion. The blast evicted Maeda from the game in the fifth inning and proved conclusive in a 4-1 defeat. The loss ended a five-game winning streak for the Dodgers and reinforced Maeda’s continued struggles beyond the 75-pitch mark.

“I didn’t execute my pitches today,” Maeda said.

To give up a home run to Machado, one of baseball’s finest talents, is no travesty. But the predictability of the outcome was difficult to shake. In his rookie season, Maeda looks masterful at the start of games. As the outings continue, he becomes vulnerable to a frightening extent.

Unlike Monday evening, when the offense overcame a rocky performance by rookie Julio Urias, the Dodgers could not compensate for Maeda’s lapses. He exited with no outs in the fifth and four runs on his ledger, which forced the bullpen to handle the final five innings.

The bullpen has shouldered a sizable load during the recent upswing by the team. That reality is unlikely to change. With Clayton Kershaw on the disabled list, the Dodgers do not feature a starting pitcher who can reliably account for seven innings. Thus the bullpen will continue to wear the strain.

For now, the formula works. But as the season progresses, the team would hope the starters can handle more of the responsibility. Maeda has yet to figure out how to do so. Maeda offered no explanation for the disparity; Roberts suggested a lack of effectiveness with the fastball as the culprit.

“You’ve got to make major league hitters respect your fastball, and that you can locate it,” Roberts said. “For a major league starter to get through three times through an order, you have to make them respect different pitches.”

The Dodgers rested third baseman Justin Turner and put Trayce Thompson in the third spot in the batting order. In the first inning, Thompson leaped and hit the center-field wall to snag Machado’s drive with a runner at second.

“From the first inning on, it just seemed like Kenta was laboring tonight,” Roberts said. “Couldn’t locate the fastball.”

Corey Seager extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a first-inning double. He scored on a single by Adrian Gonzalez. The Dodgers would not advance another baserunner beyond second base against Orioles starter Chris Tillman.

Baltimore evened the score in the second. Maeda walked the leadoff hitter, outfielder Mark Trumbo, before yielding a single to catcher Matt Wieters. The next batter was second baseman Jonathan Schoop, who hit a flare into right. Yasiel Puig flashed arm strength to force out Wieters at second, but Trumbo trotted home from third.

Maeda needed to practice evasion to quell the Orioles lineup. He also needed some good fortune. With two men on and two outs in the third, he hung a curveball to Orioles slugger Chris Davis, the man who led the American League in homers in 2013 and 2015. Davis could manage only a flyout to center this time.

An inning later, Maeda watched Wieters and second baseman Jonathan Schoop crack single. He steadied himself to strike out shortstop J.J. Hardy and Tillman to strand two more runners.

After four innings, Maeda had recorded 73 pitches. He was approaching a threshold that renders him quite hittable. Before 75 pitches, batters entered Tuesday hitting .181 against him. After 75 pitches, he served up hits at a .348 clip.

Maeda could not buck this trend. A leadoff single by outfielder Adam Jones started his downfall. Maeda walked another outfielder, Hyun Soo Park. Baez warmed up as Maeda labored.

With Machado at the plate, a member of the Dodgers coaching staff exited the dugout. It was not Roberts, coming to make a pitching change. It was pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, coming to speak with Maeda.

Maeda concentrated on pounding strikes low and inside to Machado. Maeda fouled off a changeup and a fastball to start the duel. But Maeda could not put him away. The seventh pitch of the at-bat was another curveball over the middle. Machado crushed it.

“I think if he could have executed the breaking ball, he would have got him out,” Roberts said. “But it ended up hanging.”

Maeda waited for Roberts to ask him to leave. He departed for the dugout, once more unable to stay viable beyond the early stages of a game.

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

Twitter: @McCulloughTimes