Dodgers 2 Padres 3: Shrimped

For the second night in a row, the Dodgers lose to the Padres in dramatic fashion as the Padres get another walk off victory.

Alex Wood was fantastic tonight. He pitched six complete innings, walked one and struck out a career high thirteen batters! Wood did not give up a hit until the bottom of the fourth inning when Wil Myers singled to center. Wood has struggled on the road all season, but has been great at Dodger Stadium. Tonight Dodger fans got to see him pitch great on the road, which he rarely does. Everything was working for Wood. His breaking ball was fooling batters and he seemed to be hitting all of his spots. Wood gave up two earned runs, but in my opinion this is one of his best starts with the boys in blue. Wood was so good, he was out there looking like he was trying to impersonate Clayton Kershaw.

The Padres struck first when they scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Matt Kemp in the bottom of the sixth inning which would bring John Jay home. After allowing the Padres to score once, the Dodgers quickly got out of the inning. In the top of the seventh inning Adrian Gonzalez hit a lead off single and Trayce Thompson followed behind him with another home run! That was Thompson’s seventh home run on the season and he gave the Dodgers their first lead of the evening.

In the bottom of the seventh inning Wood gave up a lead off double followed by a single which forced Dave Roberts to pull him and let Louis Coleman take over. Coleman did his job and got the out then Adam Liberatore entered the game. Liberatore gave up another sacrifice fly and Derek Norris scored to tie the game at two.

The game would remain tied at two and head into extras. Roberts made a lot of changes defensively tonight and by the tenth inning the only bench player the Dodgers had left was Carl Crawford. Yasmani Grandal started the game, but ended up fouling a ball off of his right foot so A.J Ellis took over for him. Grandal was reported on having a right ankle contusion and will have x-rays done to assess the damage. It was a hard foul off of his foot and the ball made its way to first base.

The game would continue to go back and forth. In the top of the eleventh Justin Turner just missed a home run and then in the bottom Melvin Upton Jr. also just missed a home run when Thompson just barely had enough room to catch the ball in left.

Roberts proved that he is not following in the footsteps of the front office and anyaltics. Analytics showed that Kenley Jansen should have started he bottom of the eleventh, but Chin-Hui Tsao headed to the mound. Tsao was all over the map and struggled throwing strikes. He would allow a single and three walks. The Padres yet again got another walk off win, but this time on a bases loaded walk.

The Dodgers managed to strikeout 19 batters tonight which is the most they have struckout in a game since 2009. Wood was amazing and the bullpen was pretty solid. J.P Howell put together a good inning and Coleman got the job done. With that being said, Tsao’s performance and not being able to find the strike zone lost the game for the Dodgers. However, the offense is still struggling. You cannot expect to score two runs off of a home run and think you can win again.

The Dodgers now fall behind the first place Giants by 4.5 games and land in third place with the Colorado Rockies one game ahead. Walk off losses are the worst, but two in a row against the last place team in your division is just heartbreaking and gut wrenching.

The series finale will be tomorrow at Petco Park and first pitch is scheduled for 1:40 PM. Here’s to going to bed praying the Dodger bats wake up.