The Dodgers’ starting pitcher had no problems on Saturday afternoon.

It was the bulk guy who followed him who ran into issues.

In a 6-4 loss to the Houston Astros at Dodger Stadium, Shohei Ohtani showed more encouraging signs as a pitcher, throwing two scoreless innings that included a double play in the first and a strikeout of the side in the second.

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But, in a reminder of the still-tenuous pitching depth the Dodgers have relied on for much of this first half, long man Justin Wrobleski came back down to earth in a five-run, 4 ⅔-inning outing thereafter, sending the team to a defeat that clinched a series loss to the Astros.

“It’s a good club over there,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Now we got to find a way to circle up, regroup and salvage this series.”

In the big picture, this weekend has offered hope for the Dodgers’ long-term pitching plans.

On Friday, manager Dave Roberts said injured $136.5-million right-hander Tyler Glasnow is on track to return from his shoulder problem during next week’s road trip.

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Before Saturday’s game, injured $182-million left-hander Blake Snell threw his second live batting practice of the week, striking out four of the eight hitters he faced in what is expected to be his final simulated session before going on a minor-league rehab assignment. Both he and injured reliever Blake Treinen, who also threw an inning of live batting practice Saturday, are lined up to be activated from the IL “at some point in time shortly after the All-Star break,” per Roberts.

Then there was Ohtani, who despite once again being limited to a short workload in his fourth pitching start of the season, was also once again dominant in a 31-pitch display.

After Isaac Paredes singled to lead off the game, Ohtani broke Cam Smith’s bat on a 96-mph fastball for a double-play grounder to second. In the second inning, Ohtani fanned Christian Walker with a slider, then Victor Caratini and Yainer Díaz on a pair of big-breaking sweepers — all while also touching 101 mph on the radar gun.

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“I think the stuff continues to get better, the command, the feel for making pitches,” Roberts said of Ohtani, who also celebrated his 31st birthday Saturday. “Really impressed how he’s continuing to get better and better each time out.”

In his six total innings this year, Ohtani has given up just one run, one walk and four hits while striking out six batters.

And though it remains unclear exactly when he’ll be fully stretched out in his return from a second career Tommy John surgery — Roberts called it “feasible” to eventually get him up to five or six innings if needed — the Dodgers are inching steadily closer to having the rotation they envisioned this year: One with Ohtani, Snell and Glasnow joining likely All-Star Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a star-studded quartet the club has spent lavishly the last two offseasons to build.

“We can see a little squint of light,” Roberts said. “It’s taken a little longer than we’ve all expected or hoped for, as far as getting our guys together. So we haven’t gotten there yet. But we’re hopeful and excited.”

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In the short term, however, the Astros have put a dent in the optimism the club had clung to among its stable of young pitching depth.

Read more: Hernández: Dodgers must aggressively pursue pitchers before the trade deadline

After Ben Casparius was knocked around in a historic blowout on Friday night, Wrobleski suffered a similar fate against Houston’s surging lineup. Upon entering the game at the start of the third, he quickly blew an early 2-0 Dodgers lead, giving up a leadoff single to Cooper Hummel and back-to-back two-strike doubles to Mauricio Dubón (who fouled off fastball after fastball before whacking a full-count heater the other way) and Zack Short (who got three-straight off-speed pitches, pulling the last one down the third-base line to score two runs).

Miguel Rojas, tapped to play third base Saturday in place of the recently injured Max Muncy, made matters worse by misfiring on a tough throw to first on a soft ground ball from Smith with one out, allowing a run to score. Then Walker, an unlikely Dodgers killer over his career, lined a two-out single to right to make it a four-run inning and a 4-2 Astros lead.

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“I just think my mechanics were a touch off there those first couple innings,” Wrobleski said. “It was just kind of a matter of finding them, getting back into a rhythm, getting ahead in counts, which overall, didn’t do a great job of today.”

Wrobleski, who had a 2.73 ERA in an impressive June before Saturday’s regression, did eventually settle down, but not before Díaz homered at the start of the third to put the Astros up there.

That deficit proved insurmountable for the Dodgers. They made it 5-4 when Rojas homered in the fourth (he also had an RBI single in the second inning, and drew a walk in the fifth) but stranded a string of opportunities down the stretch, finishing the day one-for-five with runners in scoring position and with nine men left on base.

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The biggest blunder came in the seventh. Having already homered in the first inning, Mookie Betts flashed another encouraging sign in the seventh, lacing a line drive that got all the way to the wall after left fielder Cooper Hummel came up empty on an over-aggressive diving attempt. As Hummel recovered the ball, however, Betts made an ill-advised decision of his own, trying to stretch a double into a triple as Hummel retrieved the ball and threw to the cutoff man.

The relay beat Betts to third in plenty of time. Afterward, Betts acknowledged he made a bad read after seeing the ball thrown to the shortstop.

“When I was running, I was like, if he throws it and I see it not going toward third base — because it was more toward shortstop — that’s why I just kept going,” Betts said. “So a misread for sure.”

From there, the Dodgers fizzled, stranding two runners in the eighth and another in the ninth against Astros closer Josh Hader.

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“I think that we gave ourselves an opportunity to get back in the game, to win the game,” Roberts said, “and just couldn’t cash in.”

In time, a healthier Dodgers pitching staff could render such mistakes mute. But on Saturday, they led to the team’s first series defeat in almost a month, and another day of waiting on their full stable of arms to be fully available again.

“We gotta finish [the season] healthy,” Betts said. “We’ve only been healthy for like a week. So we’ll see.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.