TORONTO -- After six consecutive wins this week, three empty at-bats doomed the Dodgers on Sunday.

Despite trailing the Toronto Blue Jays by multiple runs for most of the afternoon at Rogers Centre — in a game the hosts got a big second-inning rally from their offense, a dominant start from right-hander Kevin Gausman and a bunch of dazzling plays defensively — the door to a Dodgers comeback opened in the top of the eighth inning.

But, in the kind of squandered sequence the team had avoided during its return to form, the Dodgers failed to capitalize, wasting a bases-loaded situation in their eventual 3-1 loss to the scuffling Blue Jays.

"All the games we've lost, we've had a chance or opportunity to come back and win," third baseman Max Muncy said. "We just haven't had that big hit. Kind of the same thing today."

It was Muncy who came closest to flipping the script in the eighth inning, when the Dodgers (18-12) finally found life against the Blue Jays bullpen following Gasuman's seven-inning start.

Austin Barnes drew a leadoff walk. Mookie Betts smacked a double into the gap. And with no outs in the inning, the team had the heart of its order coming to the plate.

It didn't make a difference.

Shohei Ohtani popped up after chasing two fastballs out of the zone. Teoscar Hernández struck out after Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked in front of him. And then, Muncy watched a deep towering drive die at the warning track, just missing extra bases (if not more) on a 370-foot flyout hit a little too high to clear the wall in right center.

"Can't really say I missed it," Muncy said, noting the ball's lofted 42-degree launch angle. "Just hit it too high."

That all but sealed the Dodgers' first defeat since last Saturday, a setback in which — well before their close call in the eighth inning — almost nothing seemed to break their way.

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