Padres 11, Dodgers 8: Defensive miscues & a pair of late homers lead to Dodgers loss after their own comeback falls short

Chad Moriyama 09/11/2023 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Boy, I sure thought this Dodgers/Padres series would mean a lot more when the season started, but … well:

Yeah.

Regardless, the two teams played a great back-and-forth affair with a ton of scoring, but it was the Padres who were able to take advantage of the miscues of the Dodgers late, and they ended up plating nine unanswered runs at one point in an 11-8 victory.

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Man, there were a surprising amount of runs scored in the first half of this game.

Things started immediately against Gavin Stone in the top half of the 1st behind a Ha-Seong Kim single and steal, which was then driven in by a Juan Soto single to make it 1-0.

No matter, as Mookie Betts simply led the bottom of the 1st off with his 39th homer of the year to left off the fair pole to tie things up 1-1 against Pedro Avila.

While Stone bounced back with a clean 2nd, Avila played with fire. A J.D. Martinez walk, Chris Taylor single, and James Outman walk loaded the bases with just one out, and he then hit Miguel Rojas to force in a run. However, he got lucky and Mookie lined out to short and Freddie Freeman grounded out to second, so it was only 2-1 in the end.

The Padres tied the game up in the 3rd against Stone, starting with a walk and a double, before Kim grounded out to plate a run and make it 2-2.

But in the bottom of the inning the Dodgers came right back behind with a big crooked number. That started with Max Muncy hitting his 35th homer of the year to put the Dodgers back in front.

J.D. then had a perfectly place infield single, Jason Heyward smacked a ground-rule double, and Chris Taylor singled to drive in another run.

Following a wild pitch and a walk to Outman, the bases were loaded again with two outs, and that was the end of Avila’s night. Perhaps it would’ve been better to let him try his luck again, as Mookie ripped a double that would’ve bounced off the wall had a fan not interfered by catching it. Thankfully, since it was 3-2 and the runners were going anyway, they granted the Dodgers all three runs and it was 7-2.

Of course, the game couldn’t have any peace, and the Padres made it four consecutive half innings with scoring in the 4th against Stone. Manny Machado started things by lining a homer, and a ground-rule double was eventually cashed in by a pair of groundouts to put things back into save territory at 7-4.

In an apparent miracle, the Dodgers went down in order in the 4th and 5th, and Stone also got a a clean 5th. However, Stone began the 6th by giving up a single and Machado’s second homer of the day to make it 7-6.

After he got just one more out while giving up two more singles, his night was done. Not exactly what he envisioned, I’m sure: 5.1 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 65 Pitches.

There’s an extra run tacked on to his line there because Caleb Ferguson entered in relief and gave up a single that tied the game at 7-7, before getting a fortunate lineout and a strikeout to mercifully end the inning.

While the Dodger bats managed just a HBP in the 6th, 7th, and 8th frames, the pen held the game at 7-7 for a couple frames themselves.

Ryan Brasier started in the 7th with an ideal relief frame of simply not allowing any contact against the heart of the Padres order.

Shelby Miller followed, giving up a single and eventually a one-out steal, but still completing a scoreless 8th.

Things came apart in the 9th for Evan Phillips, as Taylor and Outman collided on a fly ball short of the warning track in left, falling in for a two-base error.

A comebacker to Phillips was next, and he snowconed it to keep the runner at third, but also lost the ball reaching for it to result in a “single” and corner the runners. That hurt immediately as Soto bombed a three-run shot to right, and Xander Bogaerts wrapped a homer around the pole in right for an 11-7 game before all was said and done.

That seemed to take the Dodgers out of the game, but after Mookie lined out, Freeman singled and got to second on a wild pitch, Will Smith walked, and after a Muncy K, J.D. singled to center to make it 11-8.

That brought the tying run to the plate in the form of Enrique Hernandez, who walked to load the bases and brought the winning run to the plate as CT3, who ended the game on a soft liner to short on a 3-2 count.

Sheesh?

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NLRECORD
Braves94-50
Dodgers87-56 (6.5 GB)
NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers87-56
Diamondbacks76-69 (12 GB)

*Either still playing or will play later.

Same two teams, same blessed time tomorrow at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. It’ll be Lance Lynn looking to bounceback from giving up 15 runs in his last two starts, facing off against Michael Wacha, who Bob Nightengale presumably still thinks the Dodgers should’ve traded Corey Seager for.

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