Padres 6, Dodgers 3: Pen depth continues to look like abject trash

Chad Moriyama 04/14/2024 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

A rain delay at Dodger Stadium is rare enough, but back-to-back rain delays and three in a month? Man, weather really is getting weird.

After a 45-minute pause, the rubber match of the series got underway. The Dodgers jumped out to a lead, but a comical amount of walks eventually caught up to them, as the pen continued to look like hot garbage in a 6-3 loss to the Padres.

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While the results continued to be solid, James Paxton didn’t look very sharp today either. After just a two-out walk in the 1st, he had a one-out walk erased by a caught stealing while facing the minimum. The 3rd proved to be a key frame for him, as a one-out double was followed by two walks to load the bases. Thankfully, he battled and got Jake Cronenworth to ground into an easy double play to Mookie Betts to escape that jam.

There was no such luck in the 4th, as a Manny Machado solo homer avoided the problem of hitting with RISP, giving the Padres a 1-0 lead. They also threatened immediately after with a walk and single, but again Paxton avoided the big inning.

On the other side of things was Yu Darvish, who seemed like he was cruising for a bit. He did face trouble in the 1st after Mookie singled and stole second, but he stranded him by getting the next three batters, a part of retiring seven straight Dodgers.

But given the lead, Darvish gave up the big inning in the 4th. Freddie Freeman started the rally with a double into the right-field corner, and Will Smith followed with a single to tie the game up. Max Muncy then immediately followed by turning on a fastball up and crushed one into the stands for a quick 3-1 lead.

Darvish did finish off his outing with a clean 5th, which obviously at least kept the Padres in the game.

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Going back to Paxton, after a one-out walk in the 5th, it was Cronenworth again that helped him out, grounding into another double play. Unfortunately, presumably in some attempt to preserve pen arms, a struggling Paxton was allowed to come out for the 6th and promptly walked the first two batters he faced and Ryan Brasier was forced to come in anyway.

Dave Roberts rolling with a guy who looks sharp is one thing, doing it with Paxton today was just … dumb: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 8 BB (!!!), 1 K, 95 Pitches.

Two of those three runs came thanks to what transpired after, as Brasier promptly walked the bases loaded. He did get a double play out of Luis Campusano even though it scored a run, but an infield single from Jackson Merrill meant things were tied 3-3 by the time he exited. There was literally nothing Paxton showed that should’ve surprised Dave that this was the outcome.

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Anyway, the bottom of the inning saw the battle of the pens being confirmed the rest of the way. The Padres side worked around a single, but J.P. Feyereisen started the 7th for the Dodgers and had a disaster. He issued a walk, gave up a single, then issued another walk to load the bases. After a pop-up, Profar (of all people) doubled off the wall in center to plate all three runs and make it 6-3 for the Padres. His ERA is now 40.50 on the season.

Even that is probably only because Alex Vesia (of all people) came in to bail him out. After an intentional walk, he picked off a runner and got a strikeout to end the threat. After the Dodgers went quietly in their half, Vesia came out for the 8th as well, giving up a single and walk but getting a scoreless frame.

The Dodgers then wasted a lead-off single in their chance, and it was Nick Ramirez making his Dodger debut in the 9th. Continuing the trend of relievers never being able to have a nice inning, he allowed a single, uncorked a wild pitch, and issued a walk. However, he did prevent further embarrassment by getting a double play and escaped without further insurance scoring.

Didn’t matter much, as the Dodgers weren’t seriously a threat in the game and went down quietly in the 9th.

Do I expect that to continue? No. Is it shitty to watch right now? Yes.

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Profar talked about yesterday’s mess to ESPN during the game.

lol

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11-7, they are honestly not playing well at all.

The Dodgers will now welcome the Nationals in for a three-game series starting at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. It’ll be Tyler Glasnow looking to get even remotely close to his comically good previous start, and he’ll face Mitchell Parker … who I honestly don’t know.

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