A day after one of the best comeback wins in franchise history, the Orioles plummeted to reality on Sunday.

The Orioles’ magic, which began with a pregame ceremony honoring the 30th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr. becoming baseball’s Iron Man and ended with the team going from one out away from being no-hit to walking it off, was gone. Instead, Clayton Kershaw, a future Hall of Famer, held them to two runs in 5 2/3 innings while superstar Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs and walked three times in the Dodgers’ 5-2 win.

The Orioles fell to 66-77 but took the series after walk-off wins on Friday and Saturday. On the bright side, things could have been much worse for the Orioles.

Right-handed starter Tomoyuki Sugano allowed three home runs, two to Ohtani and another to Mookie Betts, to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead entering the fourth inning.

“You know, those two pitches, you look at them,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said of Ohtani’s two home runs. “One was up and away, and he hit it to right-center and it was a pretty good fastball. And the next one is in on the black and hit to the same exact spot. So up and away hits a home run, right center, and kind of middle height, in on the black, hits it to the same spot. I think you just got to tip your cap to Shohei right there.”

Sugano’s day would quickly end, as he was hit in the right foot by a grounder and exited with the help of Orioles staff. X-rays were negative, Mansolino said.

“Obviously, anytime you get hit by a line drive, it doesn’t feel good. It hurts,” catcher Alex Jackson said. “And to get hit kind of on the toe, a pretty sensitive area. So kind of the hope is just making sure that he’s OK. Obviously, he tried to get back out there but he wasn’t feeling good, so we’ll see what kind of happens with that. But he’s a tough guy and a competitor, so I hope he’ll be good to go.”

That left the bullpen with six innings to fill — a tall order for a group that lost four pieces at the midseason trade deadline. But this was, as the entire second half of the season has been, a good audition for relievers who are fighting for a place on the roster next year.

Grant Wolfram, who made his debut in April and has spent the whole second half in the majors, took over for Sugano with two runners on and no outs in the fourth. One of those runners scored on a throwing error from Jackson, but Wolfram got out of the inning. In the fifth, Wolfram opened by striking out Freddie Freeman on four pitches and got the other two outs via ground balls.

Wolfram, a left-handed pitcher, has a 4.50 ERA but has allowed six runs, just two of which were earned, in 16 1/3 innings since July 25.

Kade Strowd, who pitched the sixth, is making a strong case for his future, and his performance Sunday only helped. He pitched a 1-2-3 inning, striking out two. His ERA is 1.37 in 17 innings.

Keegan Akin and Yennier Cano — the veterans of the crew who have struggled at times — took care of the seventh and eighth. Rico Garcia, who has handled high-leverage innings for the Orioles since they claimed him last month, ran into trouble, allowing one run, but an inning-ending double play helped him escape further damage.

“We had a shot late to get back in that thing and possibly tie it up or sweep the Dodgers, so for the bullpen to cover that many innings and give us a shot there at the end today, I think you’ve got to be proud of them,” Mansolino said.

The Orioles, as they had the last two nights, tried to comeback. After they were no-hit for the first three innings, Emmanuel Rivera, Saturday’s walk-off hero, had the first hit in the fourth inning. They scored both their runs in the sixth, Gunnar Henderson racing from first to home on a double by Rivera and Jackson driving in Rivera on another double.

“He can still do it, apparently,” Mansolino said of Kershaw. “They said that what was registering on the scoreboard as a slider was more like a cutter, and the hitters were saying the ball was spinning like a four-seam and they just couldn’t see it. ... Just kind of talking with the hitters, the spin was tough on it. They were having a hard time picking it up.”

The Orioles had chances later in the game, including having two on with one out in the seventh, but couldn’t make anything happen.

This article has been updated.