SAN DIEGO — The Dodgers go to Seattle for two games now. Consider it a palate-cleansing sorbet.
The first course was satisfying indeed, three tasty games at Petco Park culminating with a come-from behind 5-2 victory for the San Diego Padres Sunday afternoon. The home crowd’s chants of “Beat LA!” finally went from hopeful to actual as the Padres snapped the Dodgers’ eight-game winning streak and stopped them from sweeping the first series between the two teams this season.
The Dodgers and Padres will reconvene for a four-game series at Dodger Stadium beginning Thursday night, having nurtured the freshly-minted rivalry with three days of drama at Petco Park.
“It felt like a playoff series,” said Chris Taylor’s whose two-run home run off Blake Snell produced the Dodgers’ only runs in the series finale. “Every game was close. High energy, fans were into it. They’re a very good team. I expect all of our series to be similar to this.”
That would be ideal.
After Friday’s 12-inning marathon and Saturday’s close call decided by the height of a blade of grass, Sunday had a tough act to follow. It set up as another pitcher’s duel with Trevor Bauer and Snell going.
The Dodgers got to Snell earlier this time than his last start against them — Game 6 of the World Series when Snell held them to one hit and nine strikeouts over five scoreless innings only to be pulled by Rays manager Kevin Cash the third time through the lineup.
This time, Taylor crushed a first-pitch fastball with one on in the second inning, sending it 443 feet into the upper deck in left field for a two-run home run.
But that was their only offensive highlight of the day. The Dodgers collectively were 1 for 25 with 13 strikeouts after Taylor’s home run.
“I thought they made some tough pitches. A few calls that I thought could have gone either way,” Taylor said. “But they’ve got some good arms. Snell did a good job. He started mixing in that changeup more. He really had that pitch working. Then they started bringing in some of their relievers and they were all throwing power breaking stuff. They executed well tonight. We weren’t able to string a few good at-bats together late to do what we needed to do.”
Taylor declined to comment on one of Sunday’s standouts — the strike zone.
Baseball has regionalized its umpires’ travel again this season for health and safety reasons and the Dodgers had the same crew for their home series against the Colorado Rockies and the weekend series in San Diego. Veteran umpires Phil Cuzzi and Tom Hallion, in particular, left a trail of unhappy players in their wake.
Cuzzi (who ejected Rockies manager Bud Black just three innings into Wednesday’s game) was behind the plate again Sunday and once again had a wayward strike zone. He called eight third strikes — six against the Dodgers, three with Justin Turner batting. None of the the punchout pitches against Turner were in the strike zone.
“Honestly, I just don’t really care to talk about it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that it was consistent for both sides. However you want to take that.”
Bauer allowed just three hits in six innings (one a solo home run by Jake Cronenworth) and struck out seven.
Taxed by the previous two games in the series, the Dodgers had fortified their bullpen by activating Brusdar Graterol from the Injured List before the game. Roberts said he wouldn’t hesitate to put Graterol in a high-leverage situation in his season debut.
True to his word, Roberts sent Graterol out to protect a one-run lead in the seventh with Manny Machado leading off. Graterol’s first fastball registered 101 mph but Machado led off with a single and went to second on a passed ball. Eric Hosmer sliced a double off the left-field line and the game was tied.
The Dodgers’ undoing started in the bottom of the eighth when Jurickson Profar bounced a routine grounder to shortstop Corey Seager. Seager’s nonchalant throw sailed high and pulled first baseman Edwin Rios off the base.
After Cronenworth popped out, Roberts brought Dennis Santana in to face Fernando Tatis Jr. (who went 1 for 13 in the series, fresh off the IL). Santana would not have been Roberts’ first choice most days.
“There’s other guys that we were gonna stay away from today,” Roberts said, acknowledging that Blake Treinen and Corey Knebel were both unavailable Sunday due to recent usage. Jimmy Nelson had also pitched in two of the previous three games and Kenley Jansen has already been asked to go more than an inning twice.
“Obviously, every game is important. But the health of our relievers is more important.”
Santana walked Tatis, got Machado to fly out then gave up a single to Eric Hosmer that put the Padres in front.
Tatis went to third on the play but was tagged by Justin Turner as he strained to remain on the bag. Called out on the field, a replay review showed Tatis’ toes were still in contact with the base when Turner tagged him.
The inning played on and Tommy Pham drove in two more runs with a double into the left-field corner.
“It was a good series,” Roberts said. “Every series you go into you’re trying to win the series and we did that. I liked the energy I liked the way we competed. Trevor pitched well today, got us through six. We were in position to win the game today and we got beat. That’s gonna happen.”
But Roberts was not willing to say the Padres had done anything unexpected this weekend or given the Dodgers reason to look over their shoulder in the division.
“I don’t know. I just don’t think that we look outward for kind of edge,” he said. “I think we’re really good about kind of focusing on how we play and the brand of baseball we play. There certainly are series or teams that are going to be more magnified. But … we’ve done pretty well in the last five years when the Padres weren’t as good as they were. So I think that we’re going to keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing.”
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