SAN DIEGO — The degree of difficulty has been raised.
The Dodgers romped through a weekend at Angel Stadium, scoring 31 runs in what amounted to live batting practice against the Angels’ woeful pitching staff. But they were snapped back to reality by Michael King on Monday as the Dodgers lost to the San Diego Padres, 1-0, in the opener of a three-game series between the National League West’s top teams.
The loss snapped the Dodgers’ five-game winning streak and allowed the Padres (29-18) to move a half-game ahead of the Dodgers (29-19) in the division.
The least comfortable place to be in Petco Park on Monday night was the batter’s box. King and Yoshinobu Yamamoto made it so. The two starting pitchers allowed 11 baserunners in their seven-inning duel while combining to strike out 17.
Yamamoto came into the game with a 5.71 ERA over his previous three starts with five home runs allowed. He made just one mistake in his seven innings – a 2-and-2 splitter to Miguel Andujar in the first inning. The pitch stayed up on the inside corner and Andujar rode it out to left-center field for a solo home run.
The Padres had just two more hits off Yamamoto (who struck out eight) and didn’t get a runner past first base after Andujar’s home run trot until Jackson Merrill stole second base in the seventh inning. He was stranded there.
Meanwhile, King was confounding Dodgers hitters just as badly. He struck out nine in his seven innings.
The Dodgers had just two baserunners in the first five innings against King – a single by Mookie Betts in the first inning and a walk of Shohei Ohtani in the fourth. Both were thrown out trying to steal second base.
The Dodgers finally got off first base in the sixth inning when Hyeseong Kim singled with two outs and went to third when Padres catcher Rodolfo Duran fielded Ohtani’s swinging-bunt single (a robust 39.7 mph off the bat) and threw wildly to first base. Betts popped out on the next pitch.
The Dodgers stranded Kyle Tucker at second base in the seventh inning against King then ran into the buzzsaw that is the Padres’ bullpen.
The Padres are 20-2 when they lead after six innings this season. The Dodgers tried to buck that trend in the eighth inning against Jason Adam when Kim worked him for an eight-pitch, two-out walk and rolled to third when Ohtani grounded a single through the right side of the infield. The two were stranded at the corners when Betts bounced a grounder to Xander Bogaerts at shortstop.
They tried again in the ninth against flamethrowing closer Mason Miller. Miller walked the first two batters in the inning. But Will Smith flew out to center field. Max Muncy took a called third strike when Miller followed a 101 mph fastball with an 88 mph slider on the inside corner. And Andy Pages grounded out to third.
More to come on this story.