Dodgers 5, Padres 2: Divine intervention leads to a late Dodgers comeback to start the Seoul Series off with a win

Chad Moriyama 03/20/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The two-game Seoul Series kicked off the MLB regular season in late-night/early-morning sicko hours, which is just the way I like it.

Former member of both the Dodgers and Padres, Chan Ho Park, was on hand to throw out the first pitch.

A cursed jersey, but I digress.

The game itself was a tight affair devoid of much offense for most of the game, and the Dodgers found themselves trailing by a run for long stretches. No matter, as the baseball gods had other plans, literally breaking a glove to light a four-run rally in the 8th that powered the Boys In Blue to a 5-2 victory over the Padres.

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Things got off to a bit of an amusingly messy start against old friend and familiar foe Yu Darvish, as Mookie Betts drew a walk on a pitch clock violation and then had a steal erased due to an umpire’s interference call after he had second base stolen easy. That blunder did unfortunately kill a potential scoring chance, and the Dodgers weren’t able to get anything more from the inning.

In the 2nd, the Dodgers missed their first actual chance, squandering a Max Muncy single and a wild pitch advancement to start the frame. But it was Muncy that did the squandering in the 3rd, as after Shohei Ohtani got his first single and steal as a Dodger with two outs, Darvish walked Freddie Freeman and Will Smith to load the bases. Muncy worked the count to 3-2, but whiffed on a fastball at the top of the zone to strand everybody.

On the other side of things was Tyler Glasnow, making his Dodger debut, and he got a clean 1-2-3 frame to start. In the 2nd, he issued only a “walk” on a bad call, but the 3rd saw the first run of the game. A real walk was followed by a wild pitch, and eventually Xander Bogaerts dumped a single into center to make it 1-0 to the bad guys.

The Dodgers did come right back against Darvish, though after all the good work they did in the previous two frames, this time the rally was started by a two-base Tyler Wade error that put Teoscar Hernandez on second with nobody out. He was advanced to third on a James Outman ground out to first, then scored on a Jason Heyward sacrifice fly to tie it up at 1-1. That knocked Darvish out, as he had labored through 72 pitches by then, and Tom Cosgrove entered to get the final out.

The stalemate didn’t last long, as Glasnow labored in the 4th, issuing back-to-back walks to start and then fielding a bunt that Muncy was waiting to field, leading to an infield single and the bases loaded. He did settle down after that, getting Luis Campusano to ground into a double play to give the Padres a 2-1 lead, and then getting a strikeout to finish.

His 5th was a lot easier, as Glasnow settled down and got his first 1-2-3 frame since the 1st. Overall, Glasnow’s debut didn’t go as smoothly as he wanted, but he limited the damage well considering he basically had no curve all game: 5 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 4 BB, 3 K, 77 Pitches.

For the Padres, Cosgrove continued in the 5th, getting just one out while giving up a single and hitting a batter. Enyel De Los Santos then entered and got a groundout, ending the threat by getting Muncy to strikeout. After getting one out in the 6th, he was removed for Yuki Matsui, making his MLB debut. He issued a walk but rebounded with a couple of outs to end the frame, including a strikeout of Enrique Hernandez pinch-hitting for Heyward.

Next up for the Pads was Wandy Peralta in the 7th, who gave up a walk but nothing else. Yet after he walked Muncy to start the 8th, his night was over as well. Jhony Brito then made his Padres debut, giving up a Teoscar single, his first as a Dodger, and the rally was on. Outman followed and drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases with nobody out, which brought up Enrique, who promptly lashed a liner to deep left to tie the game at 2-2.

Adrian Morejon then entered to stop the bleeding, and Gavin Lux seemed to hit a double play ball to Jake Cronenworth, but his glove broke while fielding it and it ended up giving the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.

That opened the floodgates, as Mookie followed with a single to score another run, and then Shohei hit the first pitch he saw for yet another run to push the lead to 5-2.

Unfortunately, they are playing in the dead-ball era or something, so a Freddie rip to right fell into a glove, and Shohei had a TOOTBLAN by not re-tagging second and getting doubled up, ending the threat.

Closing things off for the Padres pen was Jeremiah Estrada, who gave up a single and issued a walk to start, rebounded with two outs, and then walked the bases loaded before getting out of it to close the book on the good guys.

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Oh right, there’s the other side of the pitching, but that’s been thankfully quiet.

Kicking things off for the Dodgers pen was Ryan Brasier, who cruised through a 1-2-3 frame that included a strikeout on just 11 pitches. Daniel Hudson was next up in the 7th, giving up a single but getting a scoreless frame of his own. The Joe Kelly adventure seemed to start in the 8th when he gave up a single to the top of the order, but he got the next three batters to move things right along.

Closing things out for the Dodgers was Evan Phillips in the 9th, who made things easy by getting the side on just 12 pitches, including a strikeout.

A nice win that could’ve really easily been a frustrating loss, with the Dodgers pen going four scoreless to close things out, striking out three and allowing just two singles.

Phillips must’ve been feeling it cause he was as forthcoming in a post-game interview as I’ve ever heard him.

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Concern about Mookie at short and Lux at second is valid, but a good start today.

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Everybody had a WWE-esque introduction, and here’s Shohei’s.

Mookie’s fight song is electric.

An old friend!

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1-0. Undefeated dream intact.

It’ll be the same two teams at the same time (12:05 AM HT/3:05 AM PT/6:05 AM ET) and the same place tomorrow, but with the Dodgers as the home squad. Yoshinobu Yamamoto will be making his much-anticipated MLB and Dodger debut against Joe Musgrove.

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