Dodgers Team News

Dodgers: Benches Clear in the First Showdown With the Padres

Friday night’s showdown between the Padres and Dodgers had a little bit of everything. The first game between the two NL West rivals was sort of as advertised, but we also got a lot of weirdness out of it as well.

There were a whole lot of errors and a lot of really good pitchers fell apart. But the Dodgers and Padres also emptied the benches in the 10th inning as tensions started to rise. With a runner at third, Dennis Santana came inside and plunked pinch-hitter Jorge Mateo on the hip.



Mateo stared down Santana as he walked to first base and Santana appeared to take issue with it. The Dodgers poured out of their dugout and from the bullpen along with the Padres. Things eventually settled down though and there were no ejections

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The Dodgers and Padres were obviously playing in a tied game when Santana came inside and hit Mateo. The issue from his side may have been the Los Angeles was probably going to walk him anyway, so hitting him on the hit might have felt intentional. 

Regardless, the game went on without any further issues. The Dodgers and Padres are set to play game 2 tomorrow evening in San Diego. Clayton Kershaw will be on the mound for Los Angeles as he goes up against Yu Darvish. 

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5 Comments

  1. It was a sloppy game, with bad bullpen management, but the Dodgers won. That’s huge. Even if the Padres come back to win the series, the Dodgers will remain in first place. Go Blue!!!!!!

  2. Ball pen is still suspect! KJ another blown save! Defense needs to step up too! Price came through! He can’t pitch every day so others must help out.

  3. I liked the bullpen management but could see Kneble’s knuckle curve cost him big time and Jansen’s/Smith’s choice of pitch location was really lame during the Machado at-bat. Kenley’s waste pitches when he is ahead in the count need to come closer to the strike zone and he totally ignored the lower part of the strike zone against Manny and then went to the dirt with Manny on third. Didn’t hold the runner as well. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Jansen’s gunna drive us nuts this year! Sloppy game for sure!

    Gotta love Mckinstry, Santana and Raley’s contribs. last nite!! Macho man Santana showing us he belongs here.

  4. Is somebody in the Dodger organization simply wanting to justify the unjustified millions they are paying Jansen in his current contract? Is Roberts letting his personal friendship with Kenley (or KJ’s past Dodger success) get in the way of sound judgment?

    With the Dodgers leading by a single run, it made ZERO sense to bring in a reliever who has shown so far this season that he is a very chancy roll of dice. Jansen gave up a run in relief a few games ago that almost lost the game for the Dodgers.

    And then last night, while there WERE several disappointing appearances by several Dodger relievers, KJ was the one who gave up the run that forced extra innings.

    Until he can prove to be much more consistent (and at least sort of mimic the consistent KJ that we knew in years past), bring him in as a reliever or closer with a multi-run lead — but NOT when a mistake can possibly cost the team the game.

    And while he’s been given incredible talent for years now (including an overabundance of bullpen talent), and this year’s team is amazing with its MLB-leading record, Roberts is beginning to look once again like he doesn’t know how to manage a bullpen. Thank goodness that the talent on this team usually makes up for his bullpen management mistakes.

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