Dodgers Vs. Padres Recap: Hernandez, Offense Struggle
On Wednesday, the Dodgers handed the ball to Roberto Hernandez, who also made his Dodger debut at Chavez Ravine. Similar to Correia the night before, Hernandez ran into trouble early as he attempted to navigate his way through the San Diego Padres lineup.
Justin Turner made a wonderful diving stop on a ball hit down the third base line, but was unable to get his throw over to first in time and Jedd Gyorko had a leadoff infield single in the second inning. After getting Yasmani Grandal to fly out, Hernandez issued consecutive walks to load the bases.
Alexi Amarista pushed the Padres ahead 1-0 with an RBI single to center as the baserunners moved station to station. Eric Stults helped himself with a single to left field that Scott Van Slyke bobbled twice before coming up with the ball, which allowed two runs to score.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the second, however Stults got out of the jam without allowing a run and the Padres led 3-0 at the end of two innings. Following a Yasiel Puig infield single in the third, an Adrian Gonzalez ground-rule double gave the Dodgers runners on second and third with one out.
Matt Kemp’s sacrifice fly scored Puig and the Dodgers were within 3-1 after three innings. Hernandez faced more trouble in the fourth inning as the Padres executed on a hit-and-run to put runners on the corners with no outs.
Yangervis Solarte hit a sac-fly to extend the Padres lead to 4-1 before Hernandez could get out of the inning. Stults continued to stifle the Dodgers through five innings while Pedro Baez relieved Hernandez in the sixth and threw two scoreless innings.
With the Dodgers still trailing 4-1 in the seventh, Turner drew a leadoff against Blaine Boyer. Erisbel Arruebarrena was robbed of a hit by a Rymer Liriano diving catch and A.J. Ellis hit into an inning-ending double play.
Brian Wilson gave up a one-out double to Liriano in the eighth, however he was then thrown out attempting to advance to third base on a pitch that bounced in front of Ellis. Amarista drew a two-out walk, stole second base and took third on an Ellis throwing error.
The Padres wouldn’t capitalize as Wilson got pinch-hitter Will Venable to fly out. Dee Gordon led off the eighth with a single against Padres reliever Dale Thayer. Gordon stole second base on called strike three to Andre Ethier to give the Dodgers their first runner in scoring position since the third inning.
Kemp came to the plate with two outs and runners on the corners but was unable to cut into the Dodgers deficit and they trailed 4-1 at the end of the eighth. Carlos Frias pitched a scoreless ninth inning to keep the Dodgers within three runs, but they were unable to complete a comeback against Kevin Quackenbush.
The loss was the Dodgers’ fifth in their last seven games.
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I am going out on a limb here and declare that the BUMS will not win the west…they may sneak into the wild card but will NOT advance beyond that. I have never seen a Dodger team (been a fan since they came to L.A.) that basically gives up when falling behind at the 7th inning stretch. Even when Dee Gordon gets a hit, steals second, gets to third with one out the team cannot get him home. I think, in order to save time, if they are behind at the 7th inning mark the team should just wave bye-bye to their opponent and walk with shame into the clubhouse. Why continue to frustrate their fans and themselves with their shabby post 7th inning performances?