Padres 8, Dodgers 7: After 3 innings, the offense, bullpen, and Dave Roberts decided to mail it in

Chad Moriyama 04/12/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Back home to kickoff a nine-game homestand, the Dodgers and Padres played Home Run Derby early on. Predictably, that was how most of the damage was done, and while the Dodgers got the best of the early exchange, it was the Padres that stormed back to win 8-7 in extras thanks to the Dodgers offense stalling out entirely, the pen continuing to look shaky, and Dave Roberts making some interesting choices.

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Yoshinobu Yamamoto had to be reliving his MLB debut a bit, as against the same Padres from the Seoul Series, he gave up a single and homer to Manny Machado in the 1st.

Things didn’t get much better in the aftermath as he gave up a lead-off homer in the 2nd to Ha-Seong Kim for a third run.

After that though, Yamamoto really settled in, facing just one over the minimum the rest of the way. He ended up getting through five, and while he wasn’t great like his previous couple of starts, he did limit the damage.

5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K, 91 Pitches

As mentioned, that ended up being sufficient to exit with the lead because the Dodgers teed off on Michael King. They started immediately in the 1st thanks to Shohei Ohtani smashing a ball for his fourth of the year, which according to social media was part of the government’s plan to rig things for him (or something).

They continued to mash in the 2nd, as Max Muncy lined a ball over the wall in right for his third of the year. Later in the inning, after a James Outman walk and Gavin Lux reaching on a Xander Bogaerts error, Mookie Betts absolutely annihilated a three-run shot to left for his sixth of the year to give the Dodgers a 5-3 lead all of a sudden.

The 3rd made it three straight innings with a run scored and a homer mashed, as after it looked like they might strand Freddie Freeman‘s lead-off single, Teoscar Hernandez stepped up and poked his fifth homer of the year oppo to push the lead to 7-3.

King did get a clean 4th and then escaped a lead-off Ohtani double (and a Muncy walk) in the 5th to complete his night, keeping the game within striking distance at least.

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Starting things off for the pens was Daniel Hudson in the 6th, who labored for once through a 24-pitch inning, including giving up a solo shot to Jake Cronenworth to make it 7-4.

After the offense went down in order, next up was Ryan Brasier in the 7th and he had a disaster. Things started off great, as Mookie made an excellent catch diving into the netting for the first out of the frame.

Yet despite that help, Brasier then walked a batter and gave up a single to corner the runners. A grounder plated a run but gave him two outs, though that didn’t matter much after Fernando Tatis Jr. smashed the game-tying homer to tie the game up at 7-7.

The bats threated in their half behind an Ohtani double, but couldn’t push a run across.

That led to Joe Kelly entering in the 8th and cruising through a 1-2-3 frame with a pair of strikeouts. The bottom of things saw Chris Taylor (!!!) reach on an error, but nothing much else was cooking. Part of that was due to Dave doing stuff like pinch-hitting for Outman and Lux with Enrique Hernandez and Miguel Rojas but letting CT3 hit. All that was missing was Austin Barnes for no reason.

Anyway, Joe gave way to Evan Phillips in the 9th since the Dodgers are the home team, and while he gave up a horrifying-looking fly out to left and a single, he gave the bats a walk-off shot with a scoreless frame. However, with the top of the order up they went down way too easily in 1-2-3 fashion.

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That sent things to extras, with Ryan Yarbrough entering for the 10th, and getting a pair of ground outs to only allow the runner to reach third. After intentionally walking Machado, Yarbrough completed his excellent outing by getting a comebacker to give the Dodgers a prime walk-off shot on the other side.

With the Manfred Runner being Freddie at second, a Will Smith fly out to center advanced him to third, and Muncy was intentionally walked to setup the double play. Unfortunately, Teoscar then struck out on three pitches, and then Enrique continued the struggles of the 7-9 slots by flying out routinely and a golden chance was wasted.

Onto the 11th, where it was Alex Vesia in a surprise move since it was extras. He started things off well with a strikeout and an infield pop-up, but after getting ahead of Jackson Merrill in the count 0-2, he then gave up a single to make it 8-7 to the Padres.

For the Dodgers, it was a pop-out, ground out, and a fly out to end it. Not much fight tonight to close.

Letting Taylor hit in the 11th and not either bunting or at least using Taylor Trammell, just so that Dave could protect CT3’s confidence or whatever meant Dave didn’t prioritize winning tonight, so why should I care, I guess?

By the way, 7-9 in the order went 0-14.

Still … the pen.

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The seeds!

Entertainment was there at least.

Joe Davis talking about Mookie literally doing it all.

And also astrology?

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10-6 so far on the year.

Same two teams but an hour earlier tomorrow at 3:10 PM HT/6:10 PM PT/9:10 PM ET with Gavin Stone facing Matt Waldron.

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