CLEVELAND — Mother Nature let the Dodgers down. So did their bullpen.

Rain was supposed to soak Cleveland all day Wednesday. But the forecast kept changing with the storm’s arrival pushed back far enough for the Dodgers and Cleveland Guardians to play their afternoon game.

There were only some scattered light showers during Wednesday’s game. An all-day rain would have been better for the Dodgers.

They blew a three-run lead, Tanner Scott and Alex Vesia combining to give up five runs in the eighth inning of a 7-4 loss to the Guardians.

The Dodgers were five outs away from a sweep in Cleveland and a winning trip. Instead, the trip finished with a “sour” ending, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts put it.

“It’s tough and, I guess, frustrating,” Roberts said. “It’s still a .500 road trip, which I think going into it we would have banked. But losing this one kind of how we did and, when you do get a good start from a starter we’ve got to win these games.

“We’re not used to giving up games late as far as the bullpen. There’s things that we’ve just got to keep kind of trying to figure out and get better.”

This has not been the reliable bullpen Roberts must have on his vision board.

The Dodgers continue to lead the majors in innings pitched by relievers. That group has produced a 3.98 ERA, 17th in the majors. Since a bullpen game on May 5, however, the ERA is 4.79 with a 1.45 WHIP, pitching an average of more than 4 1/3 innings per game. Not coincidentally, they are 11-11 since that day.

“The bullpen’s the bullpen, man. I feel like we go through that every year,” Vesia said of the heavy workload. “I feel like we’re a bunch of tough guys down there. I’d bet on anybody. At the end of the day, I’ve got to do a better job.”

This bullpen is not that bullpen. Vesia (who gave up the decisive home run) is one of the few stalwarts still standing in the breach. As much attention as has been given to their injured starting pitchers, high-leverage relievers Evan Phillips, Blake Treinen, Michael Kopech, Kirby Yates and Brusdar Graterol are all on the Injured List.

The Dodgers have resorted to combing the waiver wire for replacements. One of them, Lou Trivino, followed Clayton Kershaw in the sixth Wednesday. The Guardians loaded the bases against Trivino but he got Austin Hedges to pop out and escaped with the Dodgers’ 4-1 lead intact.

Roberts sent him back out for the seventh, aware of the limitations of his other options at that point.

“I think it’s just more of, just given where we’re at, the options,” Roberts said. “Some of those guys (the Guardians had three switch-hitters in Wednesday’s lineup) you want batting left-handed versus right-handed. He was down for a couple days. That’s kind of where we’re at. I felt good about that.”

Trivino gave up hits to three of the first four Guardians in the seventh including an RBI single by Carlos Santana so Roberts made an early call to Scott.

“I just felt that right there, Trivino was out of gas and I wanted to stop the momentum,” Roberts said. “That part of the order, I felt good about Tanner going back out there.”

Scott did strike out Gabriel Arias to end the seventh. But he retired just one of the five batters he faced in the eighth.

Jhonkensy Noel reached on an infield single. Will Wilson did the same, though his grounder had the look of a potential double play off the bat before taking a bad hop off the edge of the infield grass and handcuffing Max Muncy at third base.

“I didn’t get a clear view of it,” Roberts said of the latest defensive mishap involving Muncy. “I know the coaches were talking about that it kind of, the last hop took a weird turn. I just didn’t get a good enough look at it.”

Scott then walked Daniel Schneemann to load the bases with no outs then struck out Austin Hedges. He was ahead in the count 1-and-2 against Nolan Jones but Jones was able to poke a game-tying, two-run single through the left side. It was Scott’s fifth blown save already this season, the third in his past five appearances and second on this road trip.

“I think at the crux is, when you get count leverage we’re just not able to put guys away with the strikeout,” Roberts said. “Leaving middle spin sliders in the zone for them to put the ball in play — I think that when you do that, sometimes the ball finds holes or some outfield grass. That’s kind of what I see.”

Vesia replaced Scott but fell behind 2-and-0 to Angel Martinez and left a 91-mph fastball over the heart of the plate. Martinez lined it into the left-field seats for a three-run home run.

“I tried to throw him two changeups and they were not very good. The fastball was right down the middle,” Vesia said.

It was the seventh home run Vesia has allowed in 24 innings this season, matching his career-high for a season. Related — his fastball velocity is down to an average of 92.4 mph this season, a full 2 mph lost since 2023.

“Just my misses have been bad. That’s pretty much it,” Vesia said. “Just gotta keep going and execute pitches a little bit better.

“That’s just how it’s going right now.”

The Guardians’ comeback ruined Kershaw’s chances for the first win of his latest post-surgery comeback. He survived some hard contact early to hold the Guardians to one run in his five innings.

Kershaw gave up three balls with exit velocities of 105 mph or higher, with back-to-back walks mixed in, during the first inning. The Guardians hit nine balls with exit velocities of 98 mph or higher off Kershaw, including five in the first two innings.

“The first inning was pretty rough,” Kershaw said. “I’m fighting some stuff mechanically and different things. I was able to make a few pitches here and there to get through five but obviously wasn’t pitching good enough to be able to stay in the game, which makes the bullpen have to throw more innings, and sometimes stuff like this happens.”

All of that loud contact early produced just one run in the first inning. Andy Pages threw out a runner in the first inning and Kershaw got a double-play ball in the third inning to limit damage, helping him survive long enough to retire seven of the final eight batters he faced. He struck out three, moving within 26 of becoming the 20th pitcher in baseball history to record 3,000 strikeouts.

“There’s just some stuff I need to hammer down,” said Kershaw whose previous start was cut to two innings by a rainstorm that did live up to its billing. “Just with not feeling my best, I think I created some bad habits last year. And then, I haven’t pitched in a while. I haven’t pitched in a long time. So there’s just some growing pains, I think, with the first few.”