June 21-23: Another important series, especially as a statement maker.
Game 1- Very ugly start for Urias. the worst was his meatball he inexplicably served up to Manny the Dodger hater/ beater. that put Dodgers down 4-0. no way should any pitcher throw a hittable pitch in the zone to Manny, when we all know he will chase pitches. Urias improved some for a few innings, but then the danger of the hanger surfaced to Cronenworth (another Dodger beater). Urias gone in 70 or so pitches after only 4+ innings.
On the offense side, Yu was very dominant with his unhittable slider. Yu got 7 straight K’s 1st time through our lineup, and 11 K’s in 6 innings. hard to watch guys having no clue, no chance to hit that slider. at least Yu made a mistake to Mookie, and Smitty tacked on another solo jack — to give us 2 runs on only 3 hits (yet again). All in all, Dodgers struck out 15 times with 27 swing and misses. Ironically, both teams hit 2 homers, but Padres’ accounted for 5 runs to our 2.
Game 2- So annoying to keep losing to the Padres! Especially when Manny has 4K’s, and Tatis is held. But 2 runs a game is not enough. And when are our pitchers gonna stop throwing cookies to Cronenworth (the new Dodger killer).
Blown opportunity in the 8th, with bases loaded and no outs, due to a great AB by Prince Albert going the other way. then both Smith and AJ tried to pull the pitch but rolled over hitting grounders to 3rd. JT should not have allowed himself to be tagged out for a DP; he should have stopped and made Manny chase him. mistakes cost games. Nice 9th inning rally attempt though, as Barnesy comes through with a pinch homer, followed by a CT3 single, then JT lines one to RF corner (great approach), which would have scored CT3 to tie the game. But Wil Myers snagged it (crap!). The end. Wait’l tomorrow. (Again.)
Game 3- Here we go again. All 3 games Dodgers gave up a 1st inning homer to Cronenworth. Kersh gave him a hanger. Bauer tossed him a high fastball right where he likes it. “Where do you want your pitch?” But then Bauer recovered his senses and command to shutdown Pads through 6. But a careless hanger in the 7th served up a 3rd solo jack to give the Pads the 3-2 lead. Roberts pulls Bauer only to have a disastrous 2-run 8th — Roberts also pulled Treinen and then Gonzalez too early, bringing in an unreliable Joe Kelly. Two runs to make it 5-3 and the sad sweep.
Offense stalled again: only 2 hits through 7. We were lucky to score 2 on those hits in the 5th (double, walk, single, error). Clutch JT drives in the tying run in the 8th to make it 3-3, after an interesting fly ball double to RF by Muncy (fun to watch Manny bounce onto the warning track chasing it). Painful game ending double play after it looked like Prince Albert came through again with a scorching liner with 2 men on, only to have the hated Manny snatch and fling for the show stopper.