Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers showed signs of turning it around of late with a nice little three-game winning streak and had two more with the Padres coming up in Mexico, but because they can’t have anything nice, the pen imploded again and they fell 7-4.
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Kenta Maeda has struggled early in games this year despite being effective overall with stellar peripherals, and that trend continued today as he allowed a triple to start the game and then a homer to Eric Hosmer to put the Padres up in the 1st. However, he did allow his first run all year past the 3rd as well, issuing a walk and allowing a single in the 4th before the run scored on a sacrifice fly that was actually a stellar play by Alex Verdugo.
Not sure why there would be any debate over whether he should’ve caught it because avoiding the big inning absolutely has to take priority that early in the game. Anyway, Maeda was removed for a pinch-hitter after just five innings and 82 pitches, as he put together another rather average start thanks to early struggles. He struck out seven, walked just one, and allowed only four hits, but did surrender three runs.
Would probably help if he stopped trying to steal a strike with his curve and used his change more.
The Dodgers got their offense going in the 2nd behind a big dong to center by Matt Kemp.
They then had a nice two-out rally later in the frame with a Max Muncy walk, a Maeda single, and then a Chris Taylor single to get a run home.
The 3rd inning resulted in another run, as a one-out walk from Cody Bellinger led to a steal by Bellinger, which led to a Kemp single for a run by Bellinger.
They then produced the lead in the 6th after loading the bases behind a double from Joc Pederson and walks from Chase Utley and Breyvic Valera. That brought Taylor to the plate, and on the first pitch he took a fastball off the hand to put the Dodgers up 4-3.
In what has been a trend this season, that lead didn’t last long, as Josh Fields entered and issued a walk and a homer in the 6th to give the lead right back to the Padres at 5-4. Things didn’t get much better in the 7th, as Adam Liberatore entered and got just one out while allowing a single and two walks to load the bases. Fortunately, Daniel Hudson entered and got a GIDP to escape trouble. That didn’t last either, as Hudson came back out for the 8th and gave up a walk and three singles to basically put the game away at 7-4 to the Padres.
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The Dodgers fall to 15-18 with the loss, as well as 8-10 away from home. While any one loss in itself isn’t a big deal, they have minimal margin for error at this point and losing to the Padres isn’t gonna help.
The two teams will do it again tomorrow at 10:00 AM HST/1:00 PM PST/4:00 PM EST, with Rich Hill taking the mound against Eric Lauer.
