Steve Webb
Game 2 @ Seoul, South Korea: Dodgers 11, Padres 15
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — Well if nothing else, that was entertaining. The Dodgers fell into a deep, deep hole in this one, thanks to some poor pitching from Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Michael Grove, and found themselves in a 9-2 hole before the end of the third inning. But rather than laying down and rolling over, the Dodgers staged a furious comeback, bringing the tying and even the go-ahead run to the plate several times before a late homer from Manny Machado sealed a 15-11 win for the Friars.
Let’s be Frank. Yamamoto was not good in this one. His legendary command basically abandoned him, and he struggled to get out of the first inning. Xander Boegarts led off with a single, then Yamamoto plunked Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch. Both of these Padres scored when Jake Croneworth cleared the bases with a triple to the right field corner. After a walk to Manny Machado, Yamamoto finally recorded his first big-league out: a sacrifice fly to Ha-Seong Kim. Now trailing 3-0, Yamamoto didn’t do himself any favors by throwing a wild pitch to move Machado into scoring position. A Luis Campusano “double” under the glove of Max Muncy and a single from Tyler Wade finished a messy, bloody five-run first. By the time Yamamoto finally struck out rookie Jackson Merrill to end the inning, the Dodgers found themselves trailing 5-0.
They had a big comeback in them, but just not enough. Mookie Betts had a four-hit day, including the first homer of the Dodgers’ season. Will Smith had four knocks as well. But even though they got it close at times, even pulling to 12-11 with Betts on second and Shohei Ohtani at the plate in the eighth, they could never quite get over the hump.
Needless to say, the game was NOT the biggest story about the Dodgers to emerge in the last twenty-four hours. The gaming scandal that cost Shohei’s interpreter his job must have weighed on the minds of everyone in this one. Luckily, they get to get on a plane, fly back to the States, and do a bit of a reset before the games resume in earnest on the “offficial” opening day next Thursday.
