Dodgers Worst Start in 42 Years, Drop 4th Straight in 14-inning Marathon

Another win slipped through the hands of the Dodgers in yet another tough match-up with the San Francisco Giants Saturday night at AT&T Park.  As it usually is with their NL West rivals, the game was well fought to the end but, unfortunately, the Boys in Blue would come up short yet again this season.

Rich Hill took the mound after Kenta Maeda was scratched from Friday night’s original start that was postponed due to heavy rain in the Bay Area.  Hill, who was 12-8 last season with a 3.32 ERA and 1.091 WHIP, received the “W” in his first outing this year against the Giants allowing no runs on only five hits through six innings.  He would not have the same success today as the Giants struck in the first inning with a one-out single by Joe Panik followed by a double by Andrew McCutchen to give them an early 1-0 lead.  The Dodgers would tie things up in the 3rd inning with a one-out double by Chase Utley who would score two batters later off a single by Chris Taylor.

The tie would not last long as McCutchen lead off the 4th with a single that was followed by a two-run homer from Giants’ catcher, Buster Posey, to make it 3-1.  Corey Seager would lead off the 6th inning with a base hit followed by a “bat-flipping walk” to Yasiel Puig after falling behind 0-2.  Two batters later, Logan Forsythe would draw his first walk of the season to load the bases.  With Kiké Hernandez up next, Cory Gearrin would come in relief but would throw a wild pitch on his first toss that would score Seager.  Hernandez would, eventually, ground out but would allow Puig to score in the process tying the game at 3-3.

The bottom of the 6th inning began in Orel Hershiser’s words with an “awkward but effective” base hit by Giants’ outfielder, Hunter Pence off of Pedro Baez.  Tony Cingrani would then enter the game but would surrender a double to Brandon Belt as the Giants reclaimed the lead 4-3.  Their new lead would be short-lived as the Dodgers would tie things up once again off a solo home run from Utley who finished the night 2-6 with 2 runs scored and an RBI.

Neither team would score in the 8th or 9th innings thanks, in part, to 1.2 innings of work by Ross Stripling including striking out the side in the 8th.  The game would then go into extra innings for the second time this season with relief appearances by Josh Fields in the 11th (who just became a father earlier this week) as well as Kenley Jansen in the 12th.  Jansen would get into trouble early with back-to-back singles by Panik and McCutchen; however, he would get out of the inning unscathed as he was able to increase his velocity up to his normal 93 MPH.

In the 14th, the Dodgers would earn their first lead of any game since the 15th inning of Monday night’s marathon against the Diamondbacks from three consecutive singles by Puig, Bellinger and Forsythe to make it 5-4, Dodgers.  Down to their final relief pitcher it was, once again, up to Wilmer Font to close things out in extra innings.  Unfortunately for the 27-year-old from Venezuela, he would be tagged with his second loss in as many appearances after surrendering back-to-back singles to Kelby Tomlinson and Joe Panik followed by a walk-off three-run homer from Andrew McCutchen, who finished the night 6-7 with 2 runs scored and 4 RBI’s.

The Dodgers (2-6) now have their worst start to a season since 1976 when the team began 1-7. That team, however, would go on to finish the season 92-70 and would advance to the World Series the next two years.  The season is still early and there is a lot of baseball left to be played.  Though frustrating for fans to see their World Series caliber team have a sluggish start, it is very likely that they will get hot sooner rather than later.  All it is going to take is a spark.

BakoBoyInBlue