Connect with us

Published

on

Shohei Ohtani‘s RBI single capped a four-run eighth-inning rally in his Dodgers debut as Los Angeles beat the San Diego Padres 5-2 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.

Continue Reading

Sports

Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

Published

on

By

Ohtani blasts two HRs to halt 10-game drought

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani hit two homers in an 11-5 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday night, emphatically ending the three-time MVP’s longest homer drought since joining the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ohtani led off the bottom of the first with his 24th homer, hammering Landen Roupp‘s fourth pitch 419 feet deep into the right-field bleachers with an exit velocity of 110.3 mph.

The slugger had been in a 10-game homer drought since June 2, going 10-for-40 in that stretch with no RBIs, although he still had an eight-game hitting streak during his power outage.

Ohtani led off the sixth with his 25th homer, sending Tristan Beck‘s breaking ball outside the strike zone into the bleachers in right. He also moved one homer behind the Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Seattle’s Cal Raleigh for the overall major league lead.

Dodgers fans brought him home with a standing ovation as Ohtani produced his third multihomer game of the season and the 22nd of his career.

Ohtani reached base four times and scored three runs in his first four at-bats, drawing two walks to go with his two homers.

Ohtani hadn’t played in 10 straight games without hitting a homer since 2023 in the final 10 games of his six-year tenure with the Los Angeles Angels.

Ohtani had slowed down a bit over the past two weeks after he was named the NL Player of the Month for May with a formidable performance, racking up 15 homers and 28 RBIs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Dobbins’ second win over Yanks caps ‘fun’ week

Published

on

By

Dobbins' second win over Yanks caps 'fun' week

BOSTON — Hunter Dobbins had quite the week.

First, he said last weekend that he would rather retire than pitch for the Yankees because his father was drafted by New York twice before being traded.

Then, he went out and beat the Yankees.

A few days after his comments about never wanting to pitch for New York, he had to defend his dad’s story about being drafted by the Yankees in response to a New York Post article that cited multiple official databases and the Yankees’ own records that couldn’t confirm Lance Dobbins ever played with the organization.

On Saturday night, Dobbins (4-1) followed up by going six shutout innings in Boston’s 4-3 victory over New York, his second win over the Yankees in less than a week.

“It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m more worried about just the win column, whether it’s against them or anybody. My job is to try and help this team win as many ballgames as we can, and pitch in meaningful playoff baseball games. That’s what I’m more focused on.”

But he realizes what it means to the fan base in this longtime rivalry, with the Red Sox fans heard chanting about the Yankees outside the park before he spoke in an interview room.

“Yeah, I love being able to perform and get those wins for the fans here,” he said. “They deserve it. It’s a great city, passionate fan base, so being able to get those wins — especially twice in one week — means a lot and looking forward to trying to build on that going forward.”

In his victory over New York last Sunday, Dobbins held the Yankees to three runs over five innings, two on a first-inning homer by Aaron Judge.

On Saturday night, Judge went 0-for-3 against him, striking out twice on curveballs.

“It was just kind of scouting,” Dobbins said of his game plan against New York’s slugger after Garrett Crochet struck him out three times in the series opener Friday.

“Crochet has an electric fastball. I can throw it hard, but the shape isn’t quite as elite,” he said. “So we knew we had better weapons to go at him with, so I felt like we did a good job of kind of keeping a balanced attack throughout the order.”

Dobbins struck out five and gave up only two singles Saturday.

Continue Reading

Sports

Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

Published

on

By

Rockies have worst 70-game mark since 1899

ATLANTA — Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado Rockies team that has the fewest wins through 70 games since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

“We don’t care,” Farmer said after Saturday’s 4-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves left Colorado with a 13-57 record.

The Rockies have the fourth-fewest wins by any team through their first 70 decisions in a season in MLB history, and the fewest since the 1899 Spiders won 12 of their first 70 decisions. Colorado (.186 win percentage) is currently on pace to go 30-132 this season.

“I mean, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Farmer said. “It is what it is. We’ve just got to show up tomorrow and play. There’s nothing you can really say about it except that if it happens, it happens.”

The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.

The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.

The only bright spot for the Rockies was the encouraging start by rookie right-hander Chase Dollander, a native of Evans, Georgia, who allowed four runs, three earned, in six innings.

The Rockies have 10 fewer wins than the Chicago White Sox, who have the second-worst record in the majors at 23-48.

Dollander said “just having a neutral mindset” is the key to remaining positive through a season already filled with low points for the team.

“Don’t ride the roller coaster,” Dollander said. “You know, there’s going to be lots of ups and downs in this game. This game is really hard. So it’s just, you know, staying neutral and we just keep going.”

Dollander was the No. 9 overall pick in the 2023 summer draft. Among other top young players on the team are catcher Hunter Goodman, who might return to Atlanta for the All-Star Game on July 15, and outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle.

“You know we’re going to have our time,” Dollander said. “I mean, it’s just one of those things that you kind of learn as you go. I’ve been very fortunate to be here for a little bit now, and I can help us going forward.”

The 34-year-old Farmer said one of his jobs is to help the younger players endure the losses.

“For sure, keeping guys accountable and teaching them the right way to do stuff,” said Farmer, the first baseman whose double off Strider was one of only four hits for the Rockies.

“Keeping their heads up and they’ve got to show up each day and play, no matter our record. It’s your job and you worked your whole life to get here. Enjoy it. This is a great opportunity for a young guy to show what they can do.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Trending