Steve Webb
Game 18, 4/14/2024: Dodgers 3, Padres 6
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Well, that was just awful. I don’t mind getting beat by good pitching. I don’t even mind getting outhit by the other team. But when the Dodgers take a very winnable game and throw it down the toilet by issuing FOURTEEN walks, I get a little testy. But that is just what they did in this one. Pitching like a bunch of High-A prospects who can’t find the strike zone, the Dodgers pitchers have no one to blame but themselves in this one, a 6-3 loss to the Padres on Sunday Night Baseball. Blech!
At first, it looked like James Paxton was going to escape a very mediocre performance with a win. He got through five innings but only surrendered one run, that coming on a Manny Machado solo bomb in the fourth inning. That gave the Friars a temporary 1-0 lead, but the Dodgers answered back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning, the go-ahead blast provided by a two-run jack off the bat of Max Muncy. The Dodgers just needed to cover four more innings and the game and the series would be theirs.
But for some unknown reason, manager Dave Roberts sent Paxton out to pitch the sixth, even though he clearly didn’t have his best stuff on the night, having already walked six Padres. Paxton rewarded his boss’s confidence by promptly walking two more guys to put the team in a deep hole. Ryan Brasier came in and decided that throwing strikes was over-rated as well, so he went ahead and walked the bases loaded. He got a double play ball that allowed a run to score through the back door, but when Mookie Betts couldn’t make a throw after an amazing stop on a ground ball up the middle, the score was tied.
Now here’s where it gets REALLY bad. Being pretty shorthanded in the pen, Doc was forced to call on J.P. Feyereisen to pitch the seventh. Two years ago that would have been a good bet, but Feyereisen is still working his way back from a year-long stint on the IL and hasn’t proven he can get outs on the big league level yet. And guess what? He decided to walk some guys, too. He issued a lead-off walk to Xander Bogaerts, and then after a Tatis Jr. single, he walked the bases loaded with a free pass to Jake Cronenworth. Ugh.
Then, with one out, the death blow was delivered, a bases-clearing double from noted jerkoff Jurickson Profar. It’s bad enough to lose, but when this twat-waffle comes up with the key hit, it’s almost unbearable.
After the Muncy homer, there was basically nothing good that happened in this game. Glad the team can take a breath, enjoy the Jackie Robinson Day festivities on Monday, and then maybe beat up on the Nationals to get this one out of their system. Because other than the dude who caught the Manny home run ball and then tossed back a ball that he produced from his own pocket, NOBODY is going to want to remember this game. Trust me. I’ve already forgotten it.
Game time on Monday is 7:10 pm. Rookie Mitchell Parker will be making his big league debut for the Nats, going up against Tyler Glasnow, who’s looking very much like the ace of the staff that we were all hoping for. Come on, Dodgers, let’s do this.
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