Dodgers Score 11, Still Lose to Padres in Offensive Onslaught in Seoul Series
The Dodgers’ and Padres’ offenses in the regular season opener in Seoul on Wednesday night were relatively quiet.
On Thursday night, they were louder than a rock concert.
The Dodgers and Padres combined for 26 runs and 33 hits in an offensive onslaught, putting on a show for the fans at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Korea.
And it didn’t take long for the downpour to begin.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto made his MLB and Dodgers debut, and it couldn’t have gone much worse for the $325 million man.
On the very first pitch, Yamamoto allowed a 105.4 mph single to Xander Bogaerts, and that was a good representation for how the rest of his outing would go.
Yamamoto allowed five earned runs on four hits, a walk and a hit by pitch, needing 43 pitches to retire the Padres in his first and only inning of work.
Yamamoto didn’t have his pristine command, and it showed.
Fortunately for him, it’s just game one of many, many more in his MLB career.
Unfortunately for the Dodgers, the pitching didn’t get much better after that. But more on that later.
The Dodgers were able to bring a run home in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a Will Smith RBI double. But James Outman lined out with the bases loaded to end the first inning.
Michael Grove relieved Yamamoto in the second inning, and worked around traffic to put up a zero.
Then, the Dodgers offense again got a run, this one on a sacrifice fly by Shohei Ohtani that was a few feet away from being a three-run home run.
In the top of the third inning, Grove wasn’t able to work around traffic.
The Padres quickly loaded the bases, and Bogaerts brought in two on a single to center field.
Then, a Max Muncy error (on a tough play) brought home another run, and a Jake Cronenworth sacrifice fly made it 9-2.
The Dodgers’ offense, however, did not go away.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Dodgers had a mini hitting spree.
Smith and Muncy led off with singles, followed by a hard ground out by Teoscar Hernández that advanced the runners.
Then, Outman hit an RBI groundout, followed by a Jason Heyward RBI single that forced Padres manager Mike Shildt to remove starter Joe Musgrove from the game.
Gavin Lux then hit his second single of the game, followed by Mookie Betts, who just missed a three-run home run, but settled for a two-run double to make it 9-6 after three innings.
The fourth inning was the first scoreless inning of the game on both sides, but that didn’t last long.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Padres tacked on another run, this one against Kyle Hurt, to make it 10-6.
And in the bottom of the fifth inning, after Heyward led off with a single and Lux struck out, Betts finally broke the home run seal, hitting a two-run bomb to cut the lead to 10-8.
Alex Vesia got the sixth inning, and gave up an RBI double to Luis Campusano to make it 11-8 Padres. The Dodgers, this time, couldn’t counter.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Padres loaded the bases against Ryan Yarbrough.
He got a ground ball to the left side that could have ended the inning, but Muncy wasn’t able to field it and a run came home on the error. Fortunately, Yarbrough was able to limit the damage to just that one run.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Dodgers found their offense again after a brief, one-inning hiatus.
Betts walked bringing up Ohtani, who just missed a two-run home run. He hit it 384 feet, and it would have been a home run in 13 MLB ballparks.
Freddie Freeman then got his first hit of the series, and Smith came through again with his fourth hit of the game, this one an RBI single to cut the lead to three.
Muncy then came up as the tying run in a big spot to make up for his errors, but he popped out to first base to end the inning.
Yarbrough retired the first two batters of the eighth, and was replaced by J.P. Feyereisen, who completed the 1-2-3 inning with a pitch clock violation strikeout of Bogaerts.
Bogaerts was not happy.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Dodgers inched ever so closer.
With two on and two out, Betts came through yet again, this time with a two-run single to bring the Dodgers within one.
Ohtani came up with Betts representing the tying run at second base, but grounded out to end the inning.
Feyereisen came back out for the ninth inning, but wasn’t able to maintain the one-run deficit.
Manny Machado crushed a three-run home run, giving the Padres a 15-11 lead and the ultimate dagger in this wild game.
The 15 runs are the most the Padres have ever scored in a game against the Dodgers.
The Dodgers went down quiet in the bottom of the ninth, and that was the Seoul Series.
Back to Los Angeles the Dodgers go for three Freeway Series spring training games against the Angels, before Opening Day on March 28 back at Dodger Stadium.
Photo Credit: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters via USA TODAY Sports
I’d like to know why Roberts left Feyereisen in after he walked Tatis then gave up a single to Cronenworth with Machado due up. I was yelling to my TV for Roberts to pull him after the walk. Why did they extend Roberts contract?
We all wonder about many of Robert’s decisions, including many of his pitching moves. This one was no different. He’ll probably say he was saving other arms for the March 28 home opener – but that is more than six days away, so “why, why, why’ is certainly correct. And I’m not sure why he didn’t start or insert CT3, who’s had a heck of a spring in place of the laboring Muncy.