SAN DIEGO – Kike’ Hernandez has made some spectacular defensive plays during his time with the Dodgers.
This was not one of them.
Hernandez tried to make a diving play and shovel a throw to first base on Juan Soto’s bases-loaded dribbler in the eighth inning Saturday night. Two runs scored when his errant attempt went nowhere near first base and the floor collapsed under the Dodgers. The San Diego Padres scored seven times in the inning to come from behind and beat the Dodgers 8-3.
The Padres’ seven-run comeback topped the Dodgers’ five-run rally to win Friday’s game after trailing 3-2 in the eighth.
This time, the Dodgers went into the eighth inning with a 3-1 lead but Yency Almonte couldn’t find the strike zone, giving up a single and walking Ha-Seong Kim and Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases.
Caleb Ferguson came in and got inside on Soto, getting him to chop a soft ground ball into the grass to the right side. Hernandez charged in and tried to get Soto at first base but his wild throw bounded into the Padres’ dugout, allowing two runs to score and setting up a two-run single by the next hitter, Manny Machado.
Things only got worse for Ferguson. He had Machado picked off first base but threw wildly over Freddie Freeman’s head, sending Machado to third. Jake Cronenworth drove him in with an RBI single to left. Trent Grisham ended Ferguson’s nightmare with a two-run single before the inning ended.
The bullpen’s collapse rewrote the ending of a game that went according to the Dodgers’ script for the first seven innings.
They used right-hander Michael Grove to open for left-hander Ryan Yarbrough. Grove didn’t look like he needed any help as he struck out the first four Padres (including the left-handed Juan Soto). He gave up a single to Xander Bogaerts and Roberts went to the script, bringing Yarbrough in to face left-handed DH Ji-Man Choi (Padres manager Bob Melvin waiting to pinch-hit with right-handed Garrett Cooper until later).
In his Dodgers debut, Yarbrough struck out three of the first four batters he faced and retired six of the first seven before giving up a solo home run to Manny Machado and then retiring seven more in a row.
Between them, Grove and Yarbrough went 5 ⅔ innings, allowing one run on four hits while striking out seven without a walk – better than what the Padres got from their National League Cy Young candidate Blake Snell.
Snell had a 0.73 ERA over his previous 13 starts and hadn’t given up more than two runs in a start since May. But the Dodgers got him for single runs in the first, second and fifth innings including a solo home run by Will Smith.