Bullpen Collapse Leads to Extra-innings Loss to Padres

It seems to me, that if you have a 7-1 lead after seven innings, you SHOULD win the game. Well, forget about “should” with these two teams. This time, the Dodgers have only themselves to blame. Their offense blew numerous scoring opportunities, and the bullpen couldn’t hold on to a six-run lead. Long story short, the last 90 minutes of my life have been very, very difficult. Final score in 11 innings: 8-7, Padres win.

May on fire in April

Dodgers starter Dustin May was fantastic tonight, and does not deserve this bitter fate. In six innings of work, he gave up just two hits and one earned run, striking out ten. The lone blemish on a near-perfect night for the long tall Texan was a solo home run by Fernando Tatis, Jr. (God, I’m getting tired of typing that name). It was the fifth home run of the series for Tatis, and the Dodgers’ staff will be more than happy to see him exit the building. Otherwise, May was spectacular. Barely letting a batter get to a three-ball count all night, May used 93 pitches during the evening, and every one of them seemed to be unhittable.

Dodgers Bat around in 6th Inning

The Dodgers offense, on the other hand seemed to build on its good hitting of Saturday night. In the sixth inning, they batted around and put a five-spot up on the board. The big blow of the inning was a three-run jack from Chris Taylor, back in the starting line-up. The game seemed won. I mean six runs is a seemingly insurmountable lead, right? Right?

Bullpen Awful

Hold my beer, said the Dodgers’ pen. Without Treinen or Jansen, who had been pushed pretty hard on Saturday night, the Dodgers had to go to the second-tier to lock things down on Sunday. And it could have gone better, to be quite honest.

First, David Price gave up three hits and two runs, but should have been bailed out of the inning on a double play ball that was booted by second baseman Sheldon Neuse. Then it was Brusdar Graterol‘s turn to cough up some runs. He gave up a walk and a single while only striking out one in the eighth. Those two runners came into score when the next reliever Victor Gonzalez gave up and RBI single to Eric Hosmer and an RBI groundout to Jorge Mateo.

Who’s next out of the pen who wants to give up some runs? Jimmy Nelson? Sure! Why not! Every one else is being terrible tonight, why should they hog all the angry Twitter mentions for themselves? Coming on in the ninth, Nelson gave up four singles, none of them hit particularly hard, but it was enough to tie the game.

With the score tied 7-7 in the bottom of the ninth, the inning started off positively enough. Austin Barnes hit a lead-off single, but he was stranded there, as Rios, Betts, and Seager went down in short order. On to the tenth!

Extra Innings Disappointment

Nelson managed a hold in the top of the inning, striking out Tatis to do so. In the bottom of the frame, it looked like the Dodgers might be able to pull this one out after all. The inning started with the runner at second, as usual in these extra innings games. Justin Turner was able to move Corey Seager to 3rd with a ground out, and now we had two shots to knock him home with anything to the outfield.

Padres skipper Jayce Tingler brought out the meta-strategy tonight and decided to walk the bases loaded, skipping over dangerous hitters Max Muncy and Chris Taylor to get to the pitcher’s spot. With no position players left on his bench, Dave Roberts had to go to Clayton Kershaw to pinch hit with the game on the line. It would have made for a storybook ending if Kersh could have driven home the game winner, but alas, it was not to be. He struck out on some nasty pitches from Padres reliever Tim Hill, and now there were two outs in the inning.

But we still had a chance. Rookie DJ Peters came to the plate, looking for his first big-league hit. Again, it would have made for a storybook ending, but AGAIN, it was not to be. On a 3-2 count, Peters whiffed on Ball 4, and we went to the eleventh still tied.

All it took was a stolen base from HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED and a deep fly ball from Eric Hosmer, and the Fightin’ Friars had pushed the go-ahead run across. The Dodgers went quietly in the eleventh, when both Betts and Seager failed to convert the scoring opportunity with DJ Peters on second.

Ugh.

It was a familiar refrain. Again and again and again in the this game, the Dodgers put men on base, but just couldn’t push them across. Yes, the bullpen blew it. But the lead should have been 9 or 10 or more to 1, not just seven. In all, the Dodgers left EIGHTEEN men on base on Sunday and were a horrible 3-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

Guys. 3-for-17? Seriously?

This one hurts. We can’t keep throwing away games like this. This bullpen is too thin right now. The hitters are choking too much. It was all just a frustrating, irritating, disaster. Hopefully, this will be the humiliation that lights a fire under the Dodgers. Something needs to.

And quick.

WARNING. THESE HIGHLIGHTS MAY CAUSE NAUSEA, DISTRESS, HYPERTENSION, OR OTHER SYMPTOMS AMONG DODGERS FANS