San Diego Padres Manager Craig Stammen employed an opener in Kyle Hart before bringing in his “starter” Randy Vasquez for bulk innings. The strategy seemed to work – until it didn’t. Vasquez came on in the third inning and pitched three scoreless innings. He started the top of the sixth inning but was removed from the game before the inning ended. Vasquez allowed a leadoff double to Freddy Freeman before getting Mookie Betts to ground out. He then allowed seven runs, five of which were earned, and the Padres lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 15-3 at Petco Park on Saturday night.
The nightmarish inning for Vasquez unraveled quickly after the groundout from Betts. Max Muncy reached on an error and Freeman scored to break a 1-1 tie, giving the Dodgers a one-run lead. Tommy Edman tripled to score Muncy and make the score, 3-1 and Edman scored when Kyle Tucker hit a two-run home run to give Los Angeles a 5-1 lead. Dalton Rushing followed with a solo home run and then Vasquez issued a walk and a single to Alex Freeland and Shohei Ohtani. Ron Marinaccio came on to pitch for the Padres ending the day for Vasquez and walked the first batter he faced to load the bases. Freeman then grounded out to bring home another run to make the score 7-1, but San Diego had two outs in the inning. Betts returned to the plate with two on and two out and hit a three-run home run to center field to give Los Angeles a 10-1 lead. Muncy mercifully flied out to end the inning, but the damage was not done.
Marinaccio returned to the for the seventh and pitched a scoreless inning but opened the top of the eighth with a single, walk and a single to load the bases an end his night. David Morgan was called on to try to prevent or at least limit the potential damage in the inning and he started well getting Betts to strikeout. With one out and the bases still loaded a ground ball would have gotten the Padres out of the inning, but that was not to be the case. Muncy hit a ground ball to third but Will Wagner, who replaced Manny Machado at third base, was unable to make the throw to first in time, allowing Muncy to reach and extended the Dodgers lead to 11-3 after the San Diego added runs in the sixth and seventh innings. Edman hit an RBI-groundout to make the score, 12-3 but Tucker followed with a two-run single to give Los Angeles a 14-3 lead. Morgan brought the inning to an end with a strikeout of Rushing.
The Dodgers tacked on a run in the top of the ninth inning off Rodolfo Duran was brought in to pitch as a position player. The catcher got the first two outs of the inning before Andy Pages hit a double and scored when the following batter, Ryan Ward, singled to bring him home.
Hart allowed one run on two hits and a walk over two innings pitched, but the one run was a result of a missed diving attempt by Fernando Tatis Jr. on a ball to right field by Muncy which allowed him to reach third base on a triple. Edman followed with a double to center field to score Muncy for the first run of the game. Vasquez allowed seven runs, five earned, on eight hits with a walk over 3.1 innings and Marinaccio allowed five runs, three earned, on three hits with three walks over 1.2 innings. Morgan allowed a run on two hits and Duran allowed a run on two hits. The San Diego offense was led by Gavin Sheets who finished 3-for-4 with a home run, two singles, a run scored and two RBI.
The Padres attempt to have a bounce back performance in the rubber game today at 1:10 p.m.
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