Shohei Ohtani‘s RBI single capped a four-run eighth-inning rally in his Dodgers debut as Los Angeles beat the San Diego Padres5-2 in Wednesday’s season opener in Seoul, South Korea, as the game turned when a routine grounder went through the webbing of first baseman Jake Cronenworth.
Teoscar Hernandez scored the go-ahead run on an error that could be construed as an equipment malfunction. Gavin Lux‘s grounder off Adrian Morejon went through Cronenworth’s glove, and the ball eventually settled in right field as Hernandez scored from second base to give Los Angeles a 3-2 lead.
“It could have gone through innings before that. It just happened at that situation, and it sucks,” Cronenworth said. “I mean, I thought it was an easy double play, I caught it on the first bounce.”
Watching from the dugout, Padres manager Mike Shildt was thinking San Diego had gotten out of the inning.
“I felt pretty confident it was a 3-6-1,” he said. “But it goes through his webbing and the rest is history.”
Mookie Betts and Shohei Ohtani capped their two-hit performances with run-scoring singles in the eighth inning.
“That’s a tough error for Cro,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Fortunate break for us. You got to take them when you can get them.”
Ohtani went 2-for-5 in his first game since leaving the Los Angeles Angels for a record 10-year, $700 million contract with the Dodgers. A crowd of 15,952 was on hand to watch at the Gocheok Sky Dome for Major League Baseball’s first game in South Korea.
“Just a good night overall for Shohei,” Roberts said. “The bigger picture, it’s significant because you’ve got such a generational talent that is on your ballclub in a big market in Los Angeles. There’s a lot more eyeballs on the Dodgers and on Major League Baseball.”
Ohtani, the two-way star who is limited to batting after elbow surgery, had a mental error that caused the final out of the eighth inning. He was called out when he passed second base and then failed to retouch the bag while retreating on Freddie Freeman‘s flyout, causing an inning-ending double play.
Xander Bogaerts had an RBI single among his two hits for the Padres, who mustered just four singles against five Dodgers pitchers.
The Padres were nursing a 2-1 lead before Wandy Peralta walked Max Muncy to lead off the eighth inning and reliever Jhony Brito (0-1) loaded the bases after Hernandez singled to center and James Outman walked on four pitches. Muncy scored on a sacrifice fly by Enrique Hernandez to end Brito’s evening before Cronenworth’s glove trouble changed the complexion of the game.
San Diego opened the scoring in the third inning after Tyler Wade came home on Bogaerts’ single to center against a drawn-in infield.
Los Angeles answered in the fourth. Hernandez advanced to second base following a throwing error by third baseman Wade. Hernandez moved to third on a groundout and scampered home on Jason Heyward‘s sacrifice fly to deep right field.
Machado walked on four pitches to lead off the fourth inning and advanced to second after Tyler Glasnow walked Ha-Seong Kim. A well-placed bunt by Jurickson Profar loaded the bases before Machado scored on a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Luis Campusano.
Glasnow allowed two runs on two hits with four walks and three strikeouts in five innings. The Dodgers acquired Glasnow in a Dec. 16 trade with the Tampa Bay Rays and signed him to a five-year, $136.5 million contract extension.
“The whole day was kind of a grind,” Glasnow said. “Loud — cool atmosphere.”
Daniel Hudson (1-0) got the win after throwing a one-hit seventh. Evan Phillips pitched a perfect ninth for the save, finishing a four-hitter that gave the Dodgers their sixth straight win over the Padres in an opener.
Padres pitchers walked nine and hit a batter, and the Dodgers had seven hits, none for extra bases. In the first game since MLB shortened the pitch clock with runners on base by two seconds to 18, Padres pitchers were called for four violations, including two by Peralta and one each by Yu Darvish and Yuki Matsui.
Using the glove from his first major league appearance, former Dodgers and Padres pitcher Chan Ho Park threw the ceremonial first pitch.
Before the game, Park, who works as an adviser with San Diego, expressed pride about how his achievements and those of his former Japanese teammate, Hideo Nomo, inspired younger generations of Asian players to try to reach the majors. Nomo joined the Dodgers in 1995.
“When I look at all these Asian players today, I feel that the tree planted by Hideo Nomo has grown strong and the tree planted by Chan Ho Park has grown strong, and that the fruits of those trees are now leading the majors and inspiring new hope,” Park said.
Betts, Ohtani and Freeman became the first MVPs to hit 1-2-3 in a batting order since Philadelphia‘s Joe Morgan, Pete Rose and Mike Schmidt during 10 games in 1993. The only other instances were by Cincinnati‘s Big Red Machine, with Rose, Morgan and George Foster on May 13, 1978, and Rose, Morgan and Johnny Bench on May 5, 1976.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto, another big Dodgers addition this offseason, makes his major league debut Thursday after agreeing to a 12-year, $325 million contract. He had an 8.38 ERA over 9⅔ innings in three spring training outings.
“I’m not really concerned about the numbers,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter.
Joe Musgrove starts for the Padres on Thursday after going 10-3 with a 3.05 ERA in 17 starts last year.
The Associated Press and Field Level Media contributed to this report.
TALLADEGA, Ala. — Austin Cindric celebrated his first win of the season by wearing Talladega’s Superspeedway traditional victory wreath all around the track.
A wreath like he just won the Indianapolis 500.
He thought so, too.
“Feels like I just won the Indy 500,” he said of Sunday’s NASCAR race. “I’m trying to walk on the plane with this.”
Cindric wasn’t even concerned how such a gesture might be received by Team Penske teammate Joey Logano, who raged on his radio after the second stage when Cindric didn’t push him and it allowed Bubba Wallace in a Toyota to win the segment and its valuable bonus points.
“Way to go Austin,” seethed Logano, who used multiple expletives in his anger over his Penske radio. “You just gave it to him. Gave a Toyota a stage win. Nice job. Way to go … put that in the book.”
Cindric was unconcerned by the idea Logano might take issue with the wreath on the Penske plane.
“I think that would be very immature,” Cindric said. “I don’t see him doing that. We’ll see.”
It was a celebratory day for Cindric, who gave Team Penske its first NASCAR victory of the season by holding off a huge pack of challengers over the closing lap in a rare drama-free day at Talladega Superspeedway.
“Rock on, guys,” Cindric said over his radio. “Rock and roll. Let’s go!”
Ford drivers went 1-2, with Ryan Preece finishing second. But Preece and Logano were disqualified following postrace inspections because of spoiler infractions. Logano had crossed the finish line in fifth.
After the DQ’s, Kyle Larson moved up to second and William Byron third for Hendrick Motorsports. The two Chevrolet drivers pushed Cindric and Preece from the second row rather than pull out of line on the final lap and make a third lane in an attempt to win.
It was Larson’s best career finish at Talladega, where drafting and pack racing is required and neither suits his style. He said he wanted to make a move to try to take the win from Cindric but there was never any room.
“I wanted to take it but I felt like the gap was too big,” Larson said. “I was just stuck inside and just doing everything I could to advance our lane and maybe open it up to where I then could get to the outside. But we were all just pushing so equally that it kept the lanes jammed up.”
Noah Gragson ended up fourth in a Ford, while Hendrick driver Chase Elliott was fifth – two spots ahead of teammate Alex Bowman, with Carson Hocevar of Spire Motorsports sandwiched in between them. Wallace was the highest-finishing Toyota driver in eighth.
Cindric led five times but for only seven of the 188 laps in an unusually calm race for chaotic Talladega. The track last fall recorded the largest crash in the NASCAR history when 28 cars were collected in a demolition derby with four laps remaining.
On Sunday, there were only four cautions — two for stage breaks — totaling 22 laps. It was the fourth consecutive Talladega race with only four cautions, the two for stage breaks and the two for natural cautions.
But, Sunday featured season-highs in lead changes (67) among different drivers (23). Only five cars failed to finish from the 40-car field, and a whopping 30 drivers finished on the lead lap.
Cindric marked the 10th consecutive different winner at Talladega, extending the track record of no repeat winners. And, by the time it was over, Logano seemed to have calmed down.
“About time one of us wins these things,” Logano said of the Penske trio. “When you think about the amount of laps led by Team Penske and Ford in general, just haven’t been able to close. To see a couple of Fords on the front row duking it out, I wish one of them was me, in a selfish way. But it’s good to see those guys running up there and being able to click one off.”
Larson sets NASCAR record for stage wins
When he won the first stage at Talladega, it was the 67th of Larson’s career and made him NASCAR’s all-time stage winner. He broke a tie with Martin Truex Jr. with the stage win.
Stages were introduced in 2017 as a way to ensure natural breaks during races that allowed fans to rush to the bathroom or concession stand without missing any action. Cars typically make a pit stop during a stage break.
Teammate-on-teammate collision
Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin, who combined to win five of the first nine races this season, had a collision on a restart that ensured Bell would not win his fourth race of the season.
It happened in the first stage of the race with Bell on the front row next to Chris Buescher on his inside, and with Hamlin behind him. As the cars revved to get up to speed at the green flag, Hamlin ran into the back of Bell, which caused him to turn into Buescher and create the second caution of the race.
Bell went to the garage, where he joined Ryan Blaney, Buescher and Brad Keselowski, all betting favorites who were done for the day before the end of the first stage.
“What in the hell? Man, apologies if that’s on me,” Hamlin radioed. “We weren’t even up to speed yet. I don’t know why that would have wrecked him. When he shot down to the bottom, I wasn’t even sure I was actually on him.”
Up Next
NASCAR races next week at Texas Motor Speedway, where Elliott scored his only win of the 2024 season last April.
However, Duran said Sunday that a fan in the front row near the Red Sox dugout in Cleveland said “something inappropriate” to him after the All-Star left fielder flied out in the seventh inning of a 13-3 victory over the Guardians.
Duran stayed on the top step of the dugout and glared at the fan as the inning played out. During the seventh-inning stretch, before the singing of “God Bless America,” Red Sox teammates and coaches kept Duran away from the area as umpires and Progressive Field security personnel gathered to handle the situation.
The fan tried to run up the aisle but was caught by security and taken out of the stadium.
“The fan just said something inappropriate. I’m just happy that the security handled it and the umpires were aware of it and they took care of it for me,” Duran said.
After the game, the Guardians released a statement apologizing to the Red Sox and Duran. The team said it had identified the fan and was working with Major League Baseball on next steps.
Duran said it was the first time he was taunted by a fan about his suicide attempt and mental health struggles since the Netflix series “The Clubhouse: A Year With the Red Sox” was released April 8.
“When you open yourself up like that, you also open yourself up to the enemies. But I have a good support staff around me, teammates, coaches. There were fans that were supporting me, so that was awesome,” he said.
Boston manager Alex Cora was in the opposite corner of the Red Sox dugout but lauded security for how the incident was handled.
Cora was even prouder of Duran’s restraint. Duran was suspended for two games last season when he directed an anti-gay slur at a heckling fan at Fenway Park when the fan shouted that Duran needed a tennis racket to hit.
“There’s a two-way street. That’s something I said last year. We made a mistake last year, and we learned from it. We grew up, you know, as an individual and as a group,” Cora said.
Sunday’s incident dampened what had been a solid game and series for Duran. He went 4-for-6 with an RBI and had at least three hits in consecutive games for the second time in his career.
In Saturday’s doubleheader nightcap, Duran had Boston’s first straight steal of home plate in 16 years.
Duran went 7-for-15 with three RBIs as Boston took two of three games in the weekend series. Six of his hits in the series came against lefties after Duran was just 3-for-31 against southpaws coming into the weekend.
“I’ve been getting some good swings on lefties lately, just hitting it right at guys. I’m trying to stay with my process, and it just happened to work good for me this series. So, I’m just going to keep at it,” said Duran, who has hit safely in 13 of his past 14 games and is batting .323 (20-for-62) with eight extra-base hits, including a home run, and six RBIs during that span.
Tkachuk’s hit, in the third period of his team’s 5-1 loss, received a five-minute major. According to sources, the NHL Department of Player Safety determined that was enough, considering Guentzel had recently touched the puck and Tkachuk didn’t make contact with Guentzel’s head.
The department also believed that the force in which Tkachuk hit Guentzel was far lesser than the hit Tampa’s Brandon Hagel made on Florida captain Aleksander Barkov in Game 2, which earned Hagel a one game suspension.
The plays led both coaches to trade jabs in the media. After Barkov went down in Game 2, Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice said: “The only players we hit are the one with pucks.”
Barkov missed the end of the third period, but played in Game 3. Game 4 is Monday at Amerant Bank Arena.
At his postgame press conference, following Tkachuk’s hit on Guentzel, Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper deadpanned the exact same line as Maurice.
Tkachuk leads the series in scoring with three goals and an assist through three games. Guentzel has two goals and two assists for Tampa Bay.
The Battle of Florida is living up to the billing as one of the most contentious rivalries in hockey; either Tampa or Florida has made it to the Stanley Cup Final in each of the last five seasons.
