As the announcer called out his name in the lineup, Eliezer Alfonzo hugged fellow Venezuelan Miguel Rojas before the catcher walked down the dugout to greet his teammates and coaches. The two had written messages on their caps in silver ink: On Alfonzo’s, “EyP, RIP,” the initials of his stepmother Patricia and his younger sister Eliana. On Rojas’, a cross was drawn next to “Alfonzo” and below “Fuerza Matatan.” In other words, stay strong, Matatan, the nickname given to Alfonzo’s father, the former major league catcher Eliezer “El Matatán” Alfonzo.
An unimaginable weight rested on his shoulders when Alfonzo stepped into the batter’s box to a standing ovation. Alfonzo’s stepmother and sister were reportedly found dead after the earthquakes in Venezuela last month.
The Dodgers catcher had previously clung to hope that the two, who had been reported missing, would be found. His father had searched tirelessly for his wife and daughter, his hope bolstered when he found the family’s dog alive. Alfonzo’s father stayed in the country, searching, when the Dodgers called his son to let him know he’d join the team.
The series finale with the Padres should’ve been a happy day. Most players who have toiled in the minor league system debut in front of applauding friends and family. Instead, Alfonzo’s first appearance, the culmination of nine tireless years, was somber in the Dodgers’ 5-2 loss to the Padres.
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Even manager Dave Roberts was lost for words.
“Don’t really know what to say about it outside of my heart goes out to him and his family,” he said before the game.
Alfonzo went 0-for-2 in an otherwise quiet Dodgers (59-32) game. Emmet Sheehan gave up an RBI single to Padres’ center fielder Jackson Merrill in the fourth inning. In the fifth, he pitched himself into a jam, giving up a successive walk and double that put two runners in scoring position. With no room for error, Sheehan was quickly replaced by Jack Dreyer, who escaped the inning scoreless.
Sheehan (4-6) has now had five straight starts that lasted no more than five innings. But, having given up only one earned run in the series closer to the Padres (44-45), Sheehan’s start could be viewed as a step in the right direction: only three hits and five strikeouts.
The Dodgers, who lead MLB in batting average (.265), remained hitless until Rojas broke through with a single in the fifth. The pressure ratcheted up in the sixth when Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages worked walks off Yuki Matsui, who replaced JP Sears. The Padres switched pitchers again before Mookie Betts’ two-out at-bat, and the move paid off. Betts hit a routine flyball, and the inning — and the Dodgers’ momentum — ended.
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However, emotions remained high on both sides. San Diego’s manager Craig Stammen and coach Ryan Goins were ejected three pitches into the game after arguing a check-swing call. The ejection seemed to spark the Padres back from a season-high eight-game losing streak. After scoring in the fourth, San Diego extended its lead in the seventh courtesy of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado.
Tatis Jr. beat out a throw from Rojas to Freddie Freeman, driving in one run. And though the Dodgers challenged, the call was upheld. Then, two batters later, reliever Kyle Hurt threw a four-seam fastball down the middle of the plate, and Machado rocketed the pitch to the center field wall beyond the grasp of a leaping Pages.
The Dodgers clawed back two runs in the seventh. Alex Freeland drove in one on a line-drive RBI-single. Ohtani added another one. Neither was enough to win, though it ensured the Dodgers weren’t blanked.
Still, the game’s result seemed minuscule when stacked against Alfonso’s personal tragedy and the earthquake’s destruction in Venezuela. And, as the country and its people begin to piece together the full toll of the destruction amid the rubble, Sunday’s game was a pause for reflection, a reminder of forces bigger than baseball.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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