Dodgers Drop Extra Inning Game to San Diego

The start of the game was delayed by 35 minutes due to rain.  This was the 8^th delay due to rain at Petco.  There were two other delays but those were due to bees.

The delay did not seem to bother Freddie as he deposited a 3-1 fastball (94.2) 446 feet over the CF wall to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead.

Dustin May faced 4 batters in the 1^st inning, with three going to 3 ball counts.  One became a walk, one was a strikeout, and one resulted in a ground out.  But May threw 22 pitches to get out of the inning.

The Padres second was more of the same with the San Diego hitters not chasing and driving the pitch count up.  After a Jake Cronenworth bunt single, May struck out Ha-Seong Kim.  On a 3-2 pitch to Wil Myers, Cronenworth took off and while the pitch was a strike, with Will Smith jumping out of his crouch to make a throw, plate umpire Jim Wolf, could not see it all the way and called the pitch a ball.  Smith made a fantastic throw that would have probably thrown out Cronenworth, instead it was a walk.

The Padres version of Cody Bellinger, Trent Grisham, followed and slugged a 3-run HR.  The next batter was Jorge Alfaro who was suspiciously HBP on the next pitch, and Alfaro took exception.  After 7 HBPs last weekend with these two teams, the umpires huddled to see if they should issue warnings, but decided not to issue warnings.

May got out of the inning, and the Dodgers bats took off a bit.  CT3 looped a single into left-center, and Cody Bellinger grounded to 1B Wil Myers who got Taylor at 2B, while Belli beat the throw to 1B.  Next batter was Mookie who was summarily HBP by Mike Clevinger on the 1^st pitch.  Why hit CT3 or Belli when you can wait to hit Mookie.  The strategy did not work out as the Padres may have hoped.  Trea Turner singled to load the bases for Freddie.

There were a lot  of Freddie chants, and he delivered a long fly to CF scoring Belli and allowing Mookie to move to 3B.  Will Smith got his 81^st RBI of the season with a Mookie scoring single to tie the score at 3-3.

In the LAD 4^th, Trayce Thompson continued to excel against RHP and unloaded with his 9^th HR of the season off Clevinger for a 4-3 LAD lead.  Clevinger knew he made a mistake as soon as he let go of the ball.

Meanwhile, Dustin May had a 9 pitch and 5 pitch inning in the 3^rd and 4th innings to give him 60 for the game after 4.0 IP.  But the LAD defense failed again in the 5^th.  With Juan Soto on 1B after a single, Manny Machado hit a single into RF that seemed to skip on Mookie that caromed off his ankle for a run scoring 2 base error.  Soto scored the tying run and Machado ended up on 3^rd with 1 out.  May made a fielding error on the next batter on a ball hit right back to him.  However, May was able to navigate through the traffic to get out of the inning.  But he threw 22 pitches that inning, and 82 pitches for the game were enough.

After 5.0 innings it became a bullpen game.  For the first 4.0 innings, both teams relievers did their jobs.  A total of 3 hits in those 4 innings.  In the 10th, the Padres brought out Adrián Morejón to face Mookie, Trea, and Freddie with Bellinger at 2B. Morejon left Belli right there.

Heath Hembree was brought in to face Machado with Soto on 2^nd.  He intentionally walked Machado to face Josh Bell, Jake Cronenworth, and Ha-Seong Kim.  He got Bell, but allowed a run scoring single to Cronenworth.  The Dodgers lost another close game.  They are now 4-7 in extra inning games. And 12-13 in 1-run games.

Gavin Lux is already riding the pine due to a cortisone shot to his neck.  Now we have learned that Max Muncy got a cortisone shot to his sore knee that seemed to be swelling.  He was ruled out of Friday’s game.  Max may be available to PH on Saturday, and could be in the lineup on Sunday.

This was a case of two Dustin May’s.  In the 1^st two innings, he tried to get the Padres to chase, but they would not offer at anything out of the zone, and made May work.  In the 3^rd and 4^th innings the Padres began to swing at the first pitch and he got 6 outs on 14 pitches.  In the 5^th, he walked Soto, but that was the only batter that got to 3 balls.  He had 3 walks and 3 Ks.

Phil Bickford is the current version of Kenley Jansen who just cannot hold a runner on base.

IMHO, the Dodgers will wait for three of Brusdar Graterol, Yency Almonte, Tommy Kahnle, Victor Gonzalez and perhaps Danny Duffy to replace Heath Hembree, Phil Bickford, and Justin Bruihl.  I am not certain that David Price makes it back.