The stakes have been completely different. However the scene felt the identical.
Identical to final October, when their record-breaking season ended after simply 4 playoff video games, the Dodgers struggled in all areas on Friday night time at Petco Park.
They couldn’t hit with runners in scoring place.
They obtained a uneven outing from their beginning pitcher.
And of their first assembly since final yr’s Nationwide League Division Collection, they have been foiled by the San Diego Padres as soon as once more, shedding 5-2 within the opening recreation of a highly-anticipated weekend collection earlier than a raucous crowd of 45,116.
“We had some alternatives early,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “Couldn’t capitalize.”
The identical was true of the final time the Dodgers have been in San Diego — after they have been somber and soaked, enraged and embarrassed, humbled and damage on the wet night time their 111-win 2022 season resulted in Recreation 4 of the NLDS.
Six months later, the Dodgers tried to not relive their reminiscences within the lead-up to their first renewal of the rivalry since.
They’ve a new-look group this yr, and a reset checklist of expectations.
A scar will all the time stay from their NLDS failure final fall. However by now, the wound has scabbed over. The sting has dissipated.
“I feel we had loads of time to consider how the season ended and what we wanted to get higher at,” Roberts mentioned Friday afternoon, his group using into city on a six-game win streak. “Proper now, we be ok with how we’re enjoying. So I don’t know if there’s any additional motivation. I nonetheless suppose we’re making an attempt to do no matter we are able to to win a ballgame tonight.”
Nonetheless, of their first of 13 conferences with the Padres (18-15) this yr, the Dodgers (19-14) couldn’t ship.
Dodgers baserunner Will Smith slides into house previous Padres catcher Austin Nola within the seventh inning Friday.
(Gregory Bull / Related Press)
They took a first-inning lead after Mookie Betts drew a leadoff stroll, Freddie Freeman doubled and Max Muncy hit a run-scoring grounder. However they squandered a collection of golden alternatives from there.
Freeman was left stranded at third within the first. Miguel Vargas obtained doubled off at third within the second, caught breaking towards house plate on a pointy lineout moments after hitting a triple.
And total, on an evening Padres starter Yu Darvish pitched 6 2/3-strong innings, the Dodgers went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring place, harkening again to their five-for-34 mark in such conditions throughout final yr’s playoff collection.
“If you’re enjoying tight video games like this, it’s important to discover a technique to scratch and claw,” Roberts mentioned. “Tonight we didn’t do job.”
Clayton Kershaw, in the meantime, labored by a four-run, 4 2/3-innings begin — his shortest of the season after being named pitcher of the month in April.
The left-hander battled poor command, doubling his season stroll whole by issuing 5 to the Padres’ star-studded lineup.
Padres proper fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. celebrates after hitting a solo house run within the third inning Friday.
(Meg McLaughlin/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“That’s simply unacceptable,” Kershaw mentioned. “It’s not recipe to win video games.”
Neither have been the 2 house runs he yielded to Fernando Tatis Jr., who drove an elevated fastball for a solo blast within the third inning earlier than leaping on a dangling slider for a go-ahead two-run shot within the fifth.
The latter inning would mark the top of Kershaw’s night time.
Manny Machado and Juan Soto adopted Tatis’ homer with a pair of singles. Ha-Seong Kim plated one other run on a bases-loaded floor ball Miguel Rojas dove to knock down at shortstop, however couldn’t convert for an out.
As Kershaw walked off the mound, the Petco Park crowd was again in acquainted type. On their toes. In a fever pitch. Deliriously cheering their membership’s newfound supremacy within the rivalry.
“I feel as an entire we all know what we’re able to, we all know what sort of ballclub we’ve,” Roberts mentioned pregame, when requested in regards to the prevalence of pundits choosing the Padres over the Dodgers for the division crown this season. “However when you don’t prefer it, you’ve obtained to play higher. If we really feel slighted, then we’ve obtained to play higher.”
On Friday, his group couldn’t — exiting the sphere upon the ultimate out because the scoreboard flashed a meme of Kershaw, with a superimposed tear working down his face.
Brief hops
Muncy left the sport within the eighth inning with “flu-like signs,” Roberts mentioned. He’s questionable for Saturday. … Previous to the sport, rookie right-hander Gavin Stone was despatched again to the minors, two days after he made his main league debut in a four-inning, five-run begin. Reliever Wander Suero was known as up in his place. … J.D. Martinez (again) began taking swings once more on Friday. Roberts mentioned the Dodgers are hopeful he may return by Tuesday or Wednesday. …Trayce Thompson is again at full energy after lacking a few video games with an sickness. Roberts mentioned he’ll begin on Saturday.