The jet-lagged Dodger bats showed up late to South Korea as the Dodgers had to rally from a 2-1 deficit to defeat the Padres in the Seoul series opener on Wednesday morning. Technically morning for us in the states. The boys in blue scored four unanswered runs in the top of the eighth inning en route to a 5-2 win. The Padres did not play fundamentally sound baseball. They had several pitch clock violations, issued eight walks, made two sloppy defensive plays and used seven relievers. Shohei Othani’s official Dodger’s debut was a success, as the Japanese two-way star notched two hits, and a stolen base in a 2 for 5 performance.
It was ten years ago that the Dodgers opened the 2014 season with a two-game series against the Dbacks in Syndey Australia. This time the Dodgers and Padres are representing Major League Baseball in South Korea with two games. The crowds were out in force in the dome. Chan Ho Park threw out the ceremonial first pitch while former Dodger Hyun-jin Ryu was spotted during the broadcast.
The pitching matchup pitted newly acquired Front man Tyler Glasnow against old friend turned older enemy Yu Darvish. Glasnow was good but not great, tossing 5 frames, allowing two earned runs on two hits with 4 strikeouts against 3 walks. The Dodger’s bullpen was fantastic, throwing four scoreless innings.
The first seven innings was a tense low-scoring affair, as the Dodgers failed to capitalize on many scoring chances, going 0 for their first 11 with runners on base, while leaving the bases loaded in the third. They finally broke through in that forceful eighth inning.
San Diego scored first in the top of the third when Tyler Wade walked, advanced to second on a Glasnow wild pitch and eventually scored on a Xander Bogaerts RBI single. The Dodgers answered in the top of the fourth when another new Dodger Teoscar Hernandez reached on a Tyler Wade throwing error, and scored on a Jason Heyward sacrifice fly. Darvish lasted just 3.2 innings, walking three and striking out three.
With the score tied in the bottom half of the fourth, the Padres retook the lead when Glasnow lost his command. Consecutive walks to Manny Machado and Ha-Seong Kim set the table for a swinging bunt single from Jurickson Profar that Glasnow couldn’t field in time, and a run-scoring double-play from Luis Campusano.
A four-spot for the lead! pic.twitter.com/gYwwIT7gPH
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) March 20, 2024
The Dodgers were squandering base runners through most of the game. Max Muncy struck out with the bases loaded and we waited. The natives were getting restless. Two more runners left in the fifth, and a couple of walks scattered between the sixth and seventh. The eighth inning saw the Dodgers tally three singles, two walks, an error through the glove of Jake Cronenworth (literally) and a sacrifice fly. It started when Muncy walked against San Diego reliever Wandy Peralta. After a pitching change saw Johnny Brito get the call, T. Hernandez singled and James Outman followed with a walk. A Sac fly from banana man tied the game at 2-2.
There was another Padre’s pitching change, and Gavin Lux’s grounder flew right through the webbing of Cronenworth’s loosely tied mitt. After lady luck and shoddy equipment gave the Dodgers a hand, Mookie singled to score Outman. Shohei Ohtani immediately followed with a single to score Lux. At the end of the frame, the Dodgers had a 5-2 lead.
The bullpen took it the rest of the way. Ryan Brasier, Daniel Hudson, Joe Kelly, and Evan Phillips allowed just two hits across four shutout frames as the Dodgers got the win at Dodger Stadium far east. It took the bats a while to get going, but give this lineup some time and they’ll find ways to knock in runs. If you stayed up all night, it was worth the wait. The series wraps up tomorrow morning as Yoshinobu Yamamoto makes his Dodger debut versus Joe Musgrove. I’ll try and be around more this season, I promise. I’m too young to retire. Happy opening day everyone!
“Play Ball!”, Scott!
Time to put the rubber to the road! A great season opener in South Korea. Glasgow showed some intestinal fortitude. Not having his curve, he still managed to hold the Padres at bay, until the offense got their act together, thanks to one defective glove. The Dodger offense sputtered up until that moment, having lots of runners on base, often leadoff hitters, to no avail, as RISP (2-14) and LOB (13) continued to haunt them. The error by Cronenworth’s faulty glove opened the floodgates, showing the offensive potential of the Dodgers’ new lineup.
Great work by the bullpen, too!
Let’s Go Dodgers!
Game 2. Rough debut for Yoshinobu Yamamoto. He looked nervous from the get-go…. I hope it was just first game jitters, but if you recall, in three games in spring, 8+ ERA. Not a very good sign, but really too early to tell. Dodgers’ Coaches might be confusing him by trying to fix too may things all at once.
Offense was somewhat able to keep them in the game, but 5-17 RISP, 12 LOB will not win many games. Muncy looking like the Muncy of 2023, offensively… and the costly errors. The Dodgers are continuing to keep him in the heart of the lineup. He’s really just a rally killer.
Maybe a little home cooking and dissing the Korean Street Food diet will do some good.
Too bad about Shohei’s interpreter’s gambling problem. Still need to get the details on the situation before laying blame. Just goes to show you, these guys make way too much money and losing millions to them is like losing a few coins from a hole in our pockets. Also shows that you really cannot trust anyone, even someone how you thought was your good friend.
I hope this scandal has not disrupted the clubhouse, especially Shohei, who does not need distractions right now.
Let’s go Dodgers!