The Dodgers had every reason to think they would be victorious on Monday night. The Padres had lost 10 straight, Mat Latos was a late scratch with the stomach flu, and Vicente Padilla was coming off the DL to make the start.
The result? A 4-2 win for the Padres.
That's the way it goes for the Dodgers this year, who just don't have what it takes to pound on other teams when they're down. And make no mistake about it, the Padres were just awful coming into this game. It's hard not to be when you lose 10 games in a row. But in the end, it hardly mattered.
Padilla got through the first couple of innings without any harm. In the third, Nick Hundley hit a leadoff homer for the 1-0 lead. It was his seventh of the season.
The Dodgers were able to respond in the fourth. With one out, James Loney doubled. Casey Blake flied out, but Andre Ethier picked him up with an RBI single to tie the game at 1-1. Matt Kemp drew a walk with two outs. Ryan Theriot lined out to first to end the threat.
The tie was short-lived, as the Padres went to work in the bottom of the fourth. Adrian Gonzalez started it with a one-out single. Miguel Tejada followed with one of his own, and Chase Headley walked to load the bases. Will Venable got an RBI on a groundout to go up 2-1.
Hundley came up next, already with a home run to his credit. This time he hit an RBI infield single for the 3-1 lead.
Both teams put two runners on in the fifth but came up empty. To start the sixth, Blake and Ethier both hit singles to get a rally going. As good as that opportunity looked, it was quickly wiped away on a strikeout by Kemp and two groundouts by Theriot and Brad Ausmus.
Scott Podsednik did get the Dodgers closer in the seventh with a solo homer off of Luke Gregerson. Rafael Furcal singled and Blake walked with two outs, setting up an RBI chance for Ethier. It didn't happen, as Ethier struck out.
George Sherrill and Octavio Dotel got through the sixth in order, and now Jonathan Broxton came on in the seventh. Take a wild guess how he did...
It's simple - he sucked. Like he ALWAYS does. Aaron Cunningham led off and whacked a double. A groundout by Chris Denorfia got him over to third, and David Eckstein's sac-fly RBI scored him. That's right, David Eckstein, a man who in 4,957 career at-bats has 35 home runs, hit a sacrifice fly to score a run. Nice going, Broxton.
Of course, many people will take this as me taking a shot at Broxton. Well, you're right, because I am. But it's because he deserves it. Every appearance he has ends up in some sort of failure. That's what the season has come down to for him - failure.
Mike Adams and Heath Bell got through the Dodgers in order in the last two innings to close it out.
Considering Padilla was coming off the DL, he wasn't too bad, all things considered. He ended up only going four innings for five hits, three runs, one walk, and five strikeouts. His biggest problems came in the fourth. Take that away, and he was fine.
The bullpen of Ronald Belisario, Sherrill, Dotel, and Kenley Jansen combined for three innings, one hit, no runs, and six strikeouts. Broxton gave up a run, but that's the norm for him. It's not like he'd actually put together a decent inning. That would be asking way too much of him!
The offense was also par for the course, which is saying that they were terrible. They faced Tim Stauffer, who had a 1.68 ERA coming into the game. So he obviously was no slouch. But, he's also not Latos either. The Dodgers couldn't put much of anything together against him, nor could they against their great bullpen.
There's two more games left in San Diego, so the Dodgers still have a chance to claim the series. It's not likely, but they'll try anyway. Clayton Kershaw gets the start, and Latos should be good to go against him.
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