Jim Cella
LOS ANGELES—Justin Turner stepped into the history books on Tuesday night. Unfortunately his 1,000th career hit would be the lone highlight for the Dodgers in their 6-2 loss to San Diego. Turner pounded a double off the left field wall in the second inning to record his milestone as Los Angeles lost to the Padres for the second straight night. The Dodgers have now lost three of the past four and are 11-7 on the year. San Diego wins for the fourth time in the last five games and ties LA with an 11-7 mark.
GAME RECAP: For the second straight night the Dodgers scored an early run to grab a 1-0 lead and then watched their offense go south for the rest of the game. Turner led off the second with his historic hit and scored when Chris Taylor hit a 2-out, opposite-field blooper that fell in front of Will Myers in right field. The lead would be short lived as the Padres put up a 5-spot in the top of the third. The big blow of the inning was a grand slam from Manny Machado. The inning could have turned out differently but a pair of throwing errors, by the normally reliable Dodgers’ defense, on sacrifice bunts kept the Padres’ offensive rally going. The first miscue came from starting pitcher Ross Stripling who overthrew 6-4 first baseman Cody Bellinger on an Austin Hedges’ bunt. The short-arm, shot put throw allowed Jake Cronenworth to score from second after he started the inning with a double. No.9 hitter Jurickson Profar followed with a bunt down the third base line which forced Turner to charge and make an off-balance throw which pulled Bellinger off the bag towards second base. Fernando Tatis kept the on-base streak going by punching a single through the right side to load the bases. The Dodgers recorded the first out of the inning with a drawn in infield. Turner made a sprawling stop to his left off of a hard hit ball from Trent Grisham. Turner scrambled to his feet and threw home to get the force out. Machado then made the Dodgers pay for their two errors in the inning when he hit the first pitch of his at-bat, 410 feet into the left-center seats.
San Diego would add a sixth run in the fifth inning and Los Angeles would come through with a single run in the ninth when Austin Barnes singled home Max Muncy after Muncy beat the shift with a 1-out single to right field.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
HESAID IT: “I picked it up with three fingers. I should of just gathered myself and made a good throw.—Ross Stripling on his throwing error on the bunt from slow-footed Austin Hedges.
HE SAID IT 2: “It stinks that the inning got away from us.” —Stripling on the top of the third inning when the Padres scored five runs.
NO MORE CUTOUTS, WE NEED LIVE FANS: The Dodgers are now under .500 at home in 2020. The loss on Tuesday dropped their mark at Dodger Stadium to 4-5. Last year, with the best fans in baseball in attendance, Los Angeles was second in MLB with a 59-22 record.
FIRST LOSS FOR THE BOSS: Stripling looked sharp early as he faced the minimum number of batters, and needed only 23 pitches, in the first two innings. The game unraveled in the third when he gave up the leadoff double to Cronenworth and then got flustered after his throwing error. Stripling’s final numbers were 4.2 innings pitched, six runs allowed but only two earned runs. The Padres were able to get on base against Stripling after the first two frames. He gave up six hits and one walk in his final 2.1 innings of work. The loss is the first of the year for Stripling who is now 3-1.
Mr. 1343: Turner became the 1,343rd player in MLB history to reach the 1,000-hit milestone (stat courtesy of stathead.com). He is the first Dodger player to reach that milestone since Machado did it on Aug. 9, 2018 at Colorado.
HE SAID IT 3: “That’s a big positive from tonight. To reach that 1,000th career milestone from where his career started is quite an accomplishment.”—Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts on Turner’s milestone hit.
YOU’RE NOW ON THE CLOCK: Next up for the 1,000-hit club in Dodger Blue is Mookie Betts. Betts was 1-for-3 on Tuesday which upped his career total to 983. With the way Betts is going, he might reach the milestone in 17 games on Aug. 29 at Texas. That prognostication was made because he is averaging about hit per game (1.09 h/g) in his last 11 games.
ROLLING, ROLLING, ROLLING: We know it’s a nightly occurrence, but the Blue Pen once again served up a bagel in the run column. On Tuesday the Dodgers used Adam Kolarek, Dylan Floro and Dennis Santana to finish the final 4.0 innings – and keep LA within five. Kolarek started the no-run relief corps. He pitched 2.0 innings and gave up two hits. Floro entered the game with two outs in the seventh and got four outs with only one hit and then Santana pitched a scoreless ninth with just one hit. The Blue Pen has now gone 13.1 consecutive innings without allowing a run. They lowered their ERA to 1.08 in the last 13 games and opponents are hitting just .184 during that stretch.
BRIGHT LIGHT FOR BARNES: Besides Turner’s 1000th career hit, the only other bright spot for the Dodgers’ offense came from the bat of Barnes. Barnes entered the game with only two hits in 22 at-bats (.091) in his first eight games of the year. He doubled that hit total by going 2-for-4 with a double. It was his first multi-hit game since July 15 of last season – a span of 19 games.
ON DECK: The Dodgers will have to win the next two games against San Diego to stay unbeaten in series this season. Los Angeles juggled their pitching rotation after Tuesday’s game when Roberts announced that Tony Gonsolin would get the start on Wednesday instead of Julio Urías. Gonsolin has made one start for the Dodgers this year and came away with a no decision. He didn’t allow a run in 4.0 innings at Arizona on July. Gonsolin only allowed one hit and one walk while striking out on 63 pitches in that outing. Gonsolin has faced the Padres one time in his career and that came in a relief appearance at San Diego on Sept. 24. He didn’t allow a hit, struck out three in 2.0 innings and earned the win. Gonsolin has a 2.12 ERA and a 1.000 WHIP in his 17.0 career innings pitched at Dodger Stadium. The Padres will try to win the series when they send right hander Zach Davies to the mound. He is 2-1 with a 2.87 ERA and a 0.830 WHIP in 2020. Davies hasn’t faced the Dodgers this season and is 3-1 with a 1.98 ERA in his six career starts vs. Los Angeles. It gets worse for LA as Davies is 2-0 with a 0.86 ERA and a 0.810 WHIP in his 21.0 innings at Dodger Stadium.
THE FINAL WORD: “Trying to appreciate that we have 17 in a row. We want to make sure we really take care of the starters. We can push them more when we get into September.”—Dave Roberts on why the move was made to give Gonsolin the start instead of Urías on Wednesday.
