The two biggest upgrades the Dodgers made this offense was in their defense and in their relief pitching and both led to the demise of the Dodgers in their 7-3 loss to the San Diego Padres last night. The combination of Yasmani Grandal at Catcher, Jimmy Rollins at Shortstop, Howie Kendrick at Second Base, and Joc Pederson in Centerfield was supposed to shore up the Dodgers defense. It is only one game, it is the beginning of the season, and what took place last night is an aberration to what will happen the rest of the season.
Zach Greinke gave up 2 hits and 1 run in his six innings in his 2015 debut and then the relief pitching followed with an uninspired 3 innings of work allowing 6 runs, only 3 earned, and Chris Hatcher faced 4 batters in the ninth inning and did not record an out as the Padres put the game away.
Rollins made two errors in a game for the first time in almost five seasons and Grandal made the third Dodgers error of the night in the ninth inning that sealed the Dodgers fate.
The Dodgers also made several mental errors last night that cost them. Jimmy Rollins getting thrown out at third and Yasiel Puig not appearing to know how many outs their were on a one out fly ball that allowed Derek Norris to take Third Base. Like I said it is still early in the season and I believe those are what most coaches like to call "coachable" moments.
The Dodgers offense was Adrian Gonzalez. He had three of the Dodgers seven hits, drove in two of their three runs including his second homerun in as many games, and is off to a great start, the kind of start the Dodgers needed him to have. He can put the Dodgers on his back and carry them for a while until somebody else gets hot.
No comments:
Post a Comment