There's a lot of ways you can lose a ball game. A walk-off homer, single, error, sac-fly. Or just a good, old fashioned win by more than a run.
But losing the lead when someone steals home, and then the runner right behind scores on a wild throw? It's safe to say that could be a first.
Kenley Jansen went from being within one strike of getting a save to watching the lead vanish without actually throwing a pitch. Everth Cabrera stole home with two outs in the ninth, and on the wild throw home, Will Venable scored as well to lead the Padres over the Dodgers in a wild one, 7-6.
Sure enough, the Giants beat the Astros in 12 innings on a walk-off single by Hector Sanchez, so the Dodgers now trail them in the NL West by a 1/2 game.
Both teams scored in the first. Logan Forsythe singled with one out, and Chase Headley reached on an error at first by Juan Rivera. Carlos Quentin gathered an RBI on a fielder's choice, and it was 1-0.
The Dodgers have to love getting their 2-3-4 part of the order back, and it showed in the bottom of the frame. Mark Ellis and Matt Kemp both singled with one out. Andre Ethier hit his 56th RBI with a single to left to tie the game.
The story from here on out was that the Dodgers would take a lead, only to watch the Padres claw back. The first three hitters for the Dodgers reached in the third, as Bobby Abreu walked, and Ellis and Kemp singled again. Ethier hit another RBI single to make it 2-1. Rivera walked with the bases juiced to force in a run, and it was 3-1. There was still nobody out, but Adam Kennedy, A.J. Ellis, and Luis Cruz all failed to bring in another run, something that proved costly later in the game.
A solo homer by Quentin in the fourth cut the lead to 3-2. But, the Dodgers got that run right back in the fifth. Rivera hit a single with one out, then went to third on an error by catcher Yasmani Grendal. An RBI double by Kennedy (yes, really) put the Dodgers up 4-2.
And just when you thought the Dodgers might cruise from there, Headley smacked a two-run homer to start the sixth off of Aaron Harang, and sure enough, it was now 4-4. But fear not, said Mr. Ethier, as his two-run homer with two outs gave him 11 on the year and put the Dodgers back up a couple at 6-4.
Don Mattingly has had much success lately with the combination of Ronald Belisario in the eighth and Jansen in the ninth. Simply put, it didn't work on this night. Belisario escaped with the lead, but not before Quentin's RBI single with two down cut the score to 6-5.
Then came the ninth, and boy did things unravel for the home team. Two straight singles greeted Jansen, first by Yonder Alonso, then by Venable. It looked like Jansen would be able to wiggle out of trouble as he next struck out Cameron "Tiki" Maybin and got Mark Kotsay to pop up after an 11-pitch at-bat.
Then with a 2-2 count on Alexi Amarista and the crowd on their feet, Cabrera, who was pinch-running for Alonso, broke for home. A good throw would've nailed him judging by the fact that home plate umpire Greg Gibson initially called him out. But when it was discovered that the ball sailed all the way to the backstop, that call was quickly changed. Venable hustled around to score as well, and the Dodgers went from a high one second to a low the next.
Huston Street pitched a perfect ninth for his 14th save. He got James Loney grounding to second for the first out. Shocking! I swear, even in his young career, Loney has grounded out to second more times than anyone else in the history of baseball. Well, to be fair, he also grounds out to first a lot, too.
This was obviously a disappointing loss for the Dodgers, who scored 6 runs on 11 hits, but their two big errors cost them two runs. The Padres deserve plenty of praise, as they truly never quit in this thing. A healthy Quentin to hit in the cleanup spot makes a nice 3-4 combination with Headley. Together, they drove in five runs, which just killed the Dodgers.
I know not every closer is perfect (especially from years of watching Jonathan "Blown Save" Broxton), but I still can't help but worry about Jansen in that role. He's now 16-20 in save opportunities. Good numbers, no doubt. But what concerns me is that he really only throws one pitch, the cutter. While it's a nasty pitch, everyone knows it's coming, so they're ready for it. And I know Mariano Rivera does the same thing, but please don't ever compare anyone to him. He's too good, and that's just not fair.
I also have to wonder if maybe Belisario is a little tired. He's already appeared in 7 of the 10 games in July. Granted, there was the All-Star break of four days thrown in there, so I'm sure he had plenty of time to rest. Still, for a guy who didn't pitch at all in 2011 and missed the month of April this year, his workload has gone way up. That's partly due to Matt Guerrier being injured, and because when he's on, he's just plain nasty. I just hope that giving up runs in two of his last three outings is the exception and not a trend.
While this loss no doubt sucks, the Dodgers can at least be happy that the Ellis-Kemp-Ethier part of the lineup went 8-for-14 with four runs, four RBIs, a homer, and a walk. Lord knows we've missed seeing those guys hit, and this shows why. Then again, maybe the Dodgers shouldn't be happy since those guys dominated and they still lost. Oh well.
In a way, even Dodger fans have to admit this may have been a bit of a karma game. Remember the triple play they turned on April 15 when home plate umpire Dale Scott appeared to signal for a foul ball? If not, then look it up. The Dodgers got a break there, so maybe this was their way of giving it right back.
The Dodgers still can take this series with a win on Sunday. Then again, they have Chad Billingsley on the mound, so good luck with that! The Padres counter with Jason Marquis, who was a good pitcher... 10 years ago. I forgot he even had a job until now.
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