I’ve repeated myself on this blog countless times about the importance of having great starting pitching but the Dodgers don’t seem to understand this. For the third consecutive postseason the Dodgers are trying to win the World Series with extremely poor or non-existent starting pitching. When has that ever happened? Good pitching wins championships. The Dodgers haven’t had good pitching in years. Yet the Dodger’s management just can’t get that through their heads and it’s probably going to cost them another title. The incident with the fans was just window dressing. The Padres destroyed Dodger pitching in game 2 of the NLDS on Sunday night blowing out the boys in blue in a demoralizing and oddly familiar 10-2 thumping to even the series.
The Padres are an arrogant, disgusting club. They’ve never won anything but taunted, teased and mocked Dodger faithful throughout the night. They enjoyed dismantling the Dodgers and did it with ease all while playing the good guys act.
The Dodger pitching staff is a joke. The starting pitchers are unable to get through early innings without giving up multitudes of runs and putting the club in an immediate hole that is very difficult to climb out of. In the first game it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto who allowed three runs in the first inning. This time in game 2 it was starter Jack Flaherty who couldn’t open the game without allowing runs either. The Dodgers were able to overcome this in an exciting come from behind 7-5 win on Saturday night. The second time it doomed them to an embarrassing loss. That’s where the game was actually lost, in those first few innings.
Flaherty tossed 5.1 innings allowing four earned runs while striking out only two, but three of those were given up in the first and second innings. Fernando Tatis Jr. (the second batter of the game) clobbered a home run to left that put the Padres ahead right away 1-0. In the top of the second after Jackson Merrill singled, former Dodger David Peralta’s two-run shot gave the Padres a 3-0 lead for the second straight night. Are we noticing a familiar pattern here? In case you were wondering, the Dodgers were one of the worst teams in MLB in the first inning. The Dodgers ranked 26 of the 30 teams with a 5.11 ERA in the first inning, and a 4.67 ERA in the second frame. They’re pitching staff is constantly putting them behind in the first two innings of every game. It’s very difficult to come from behind every night.
Flaherty did settle in for the remainder of his outing, but the damage was done. That’s because opposing starter and former game 7 loser Yu Darvish was carving the Dodger lineup up like a Halloween jack o’ lantern. The Dodgers were all pumpkins in game 2.
I’ll get back to Darvish in a minute. The Padres started to get under everyone’s skin with their trash talking, and taunting. Tatis did a stutter step during his home run trot in the top of the first. It really started in the bottom of the first when Jurickson Profar robbed Mookie Betts of a home run in left after jumping and reaching over several Dodger fans and the low wall to make a highlight catch. That poor Dodger fan froze up and probably should have knocked the ball out of his glove, (no fan interference if a player reaches over the fence) of course hindsight is 20/20. Things move fast in October so it’s hard to blame the guy who couldn’t out maneuver a professional athlete who makes a living catching deep fly balls.
JURICKSON PROFAR ROBS MOOKIE!!! #NLDS pic.twitter.com/bvByqwsAKB
— MLB (@MLB) October 7, 2024
To make things worse, Profar teased and toyed with the fans. Mookie and the rest of the Dodger bats disappeared from that point on. Darvish tossed seven innings of one run ball, allowing just three hits, striking out three and showing Dodger management what great starting pitching can do for you in the playoffs. Yes it matters to have strong pitching.
Later in the night with the Padres up 4-1, a couple of frustrated Dodger fans threw a baseball at Profar. The game was delayed and during the delay when the umpires were making sure all of the players were safe, Manny Machado fired up the rest of the team in the dugout with a motivational speech. When was the last time we saw the Dodgers do that?
Never. Because the Dodgers are used to folding up like a beach chair when the lights are brightest in October. The Padres battered the dreadful backend of the Dodger’s pitching staff. Ryan Brasier gave up a solo run home run to Merrill to make the score 6-1 San Diego. The Dodgers waived the white flag when they brought Michael Grove in (why is he even on the roster?) and he immediately gave up a home run to Xander Bogaerts. Rookie Edgardo Henriquez gave up two more home runs and when the dust settled the Dodgers were down by nine runs.
Max Muncy hit a home run during garbage time in the bottom of the ninth. The game was already over by then. Shohei Ohtani went 0 for 4. Mookie Betts went 0 for 4. Freddie Freeman had to leave the game early because of his ankle injury. Fans threw trash on the field in the right field corner. That’s how this game went. Speaking of trash, the Dodger pitching staff allowed six home runs.
We get a day off and then the series moves to Petco Park in San Diego for the next two games. The Dodgers look to shame the organization by losing even more comically. They’ve already hit into a game ending triple-play, allowed six home runs in a home game so give them some runway. We think Walker Buehler will take the mound in game 3 on Tuesday night. The Padres are reportedly starting Michael King. Here’s hoping the Dodgers don’t make us suffer any more than we already have.
