Shohei Ohtani pulled even with a boyhood idol with a milestone residence run within the first inning and added doubles within the fifth and seventh innings on Friday evening, however the Dodgers’ hottest hitter was left holding the bat within the on-deck circle through the ultimate out of an 8-7, 11-inning loss to the San Diego Padres in at Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani sparked an early assault on Padres starter Michael King with a first-inning solo residence run to left-center area that gave him 175 profession homers, tying former New York Yankees and Angels slugger Hideki Matsui for probably the most homers by a Japanese-born main leaguer.
“I’m joyful personally,” Ohtani mentioned in Japanese by means of interpreter Will Ireton. “He’s generally known as an influence hitter, a left-handed hitter like me. It’s an honor to be related to any person like that. Clearly, it’s a giant deal within the Japanese baseball business, so I’m going to look ahead to the following one.”
The Dodgers adopted Ohtani’s cue by including three extra homers — a Max Muncy solo shot, a Mookie Betts three-run bomb and a Teoscar Hernández two-run shot, which elevated his main league-leading RBI whole to 17 — within the second and third innings to take a 7-3 lead and place Yoshinobu Yamamoto for a win.
However San Diego torched the Dodgers bullpen for 4 runs within the sixth and seventh innings and nicked it for an additional run within the eleventh, whereas the Dodgers couldn’t put a dent within the Padres bullpen over the ultimate six innings, the distinction in San Diego’s comeback victory in entrance of a crowd of 49,606.
“At occasions we had been superb at gathering hits and protecting the road transferring, after which within the later innings, we expanded the zone and our swings received greater,” supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned. “All you want is a base hit or to manage the strike zone, and we didn’t do job of that. We caught a lead, however might’ve finished a greater job of ending them off.”
Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough gave the Dodgers an opportunity by stranding the automated runner on second base within the high of the tenth, and Will Smith superior Freddie Freeman to 3rd with a fly ball to deep heart area to open the underside of the tenth.
San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr., left, hits a two-run residence run off Dodgers reliever Ryan Brasier within the seventh inning Friday.
(Mark J. Terrill / Related Press)
However after Muncy was deliberately walked, Hernández struck out on three pitches from Enyel De Los Santos, and Kiké Hernández flied to heart in opposition to nearer Roberto Suarez.
Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia, who gave up two homers earlier within the week, retired the primary two batters within the eleventh however left an 0-and-2 fastball up and over the plate to rookie heart fielder Jackson Merrill, who smacked it into left-center area for an RBI single and an 8-7 Padres lead.
“Alex did a pleasant job entering into leverage in opposition to Merrill, and also you’ve simply received to increase [the strike zone] proper there,” Roberts mentioned. “You’ve received to make the most of that type of leverage, and we didn’t try this.”
Suarez retired Chris Taylor, who’s one for 32 with 17 strikeouts on the season, Miguel Rojas and Betts so as within the backside of the eleventh. The left-handed-hitting Taylor Trammell was out there off the bench, however Roberts defended his choice to stay with the right-handed-hitting Taylor.
“He’s received to seek out his manner,” Roberts mentioned. “Chris has provide you with large hits. So that you’ve received to experience the fellows, run them on the market, and hopefully they discover their manner.”
Ohtani has definitely discovered his swing after a so-so begin to the season, batting .458 (16 for 35) with 4 homers, seven doubles and 6 RBIs over his final eight video games. He hit 4 balls with exit velocities of 102 mph or extra Friday evening and he was robbed of additional bases when Merrill made a diving catch of his second-inning drive on the warning monitor in left-center.
“Shohei, he’s doing it, man, he’s enjoying nice baseball,” Roberts mentioned. “He’s received that look in his eye like he desires to be on the plate. He’s simply taking actually good swings, hitting all the pieces arduous. I simply marvel at what he’s finished every day in his preparation, and simply the expertise is one thing that’s fairly outstanding.”
Yamamoto, who lasted just one inning in opposition to the Padres in his March 21 Dodgers debut in South Korea, giving up 5 runs and 4 hits within the 43-pitch outing, gave up three runs and 4 hits in 5 innings, placing out six and strolling one, Friday evening.
The 25-year-old right-hander was punished for 2 early errors, Manny Machado crushing a dangling curveball for a two-run homer to left area within the first and Ha-Seong Kim lining a fats fastball into the left-field seats for a solo shot within the second.
Yamamoto blanked the Padres over the following three innings, placing out Tyler Wade wanting with a 95-mph fastball and Bogaerts taking a look at an 80-mph curve to finish the fifth, however along with his pitch depend at 91, he was pulled after 5.
“He did a pleasant job settling in, however sadly, like most of his begins, early on, he accrues the next pitch depend,” Roberts mentioned. “Innings three, 4 and 5, the breaking ball was sharp, the splitter was again, the fastball was good. However his pitch depend was up at that time limit, and also you simply can’t run him again on the market for the sixth.”
Reliever Daniel Hudson yielded a solo homer to Jake Cronenworth within the sixth, and Ryan Brasier gave up three runs within the seventh on a Xander Bogaerts’ RBI groundout and a Fernando Tatis Jr. two-run homer to left-center to tie the rating 7-7.
“Huddy left a breaking ball that was as much as Cronenworth, however I assumed outdoors of that, he was good,” Roberts mentioned. “You understand, Brasier tonight, I simply didn’t assume he was sharp, to be fairly frank.”
Walker Buehler harm replace
Walker Buehler’s third minor league rehabilitation begin Friday, this one for Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, was lower brief after he was struck on the correct hand by a comebacker within the second inning.
The erstwhile Dodgers ace, who’s recovering from a second Tommy John surgical procedure, completed the inning however didn’t come out for the third. Buehler gave up one run and three hits within the two innings, with one stroll and no strikeouts, and threw solely 27 pitches, properly in need of the 75-85 pitches he was slated for.
“I don’t assume it was too severe,” Roberts mentioned. “He got here out as a precaution.”
Buehler made his first two begins for triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis, giving up three earned runs and 5 hits, placing out eight and strolling two in eight innings, and was scheduled to make at the least another minor league begin on Thursday earlier than returning to the rotation.
Quick hops
Ambar Roman, the 28-year-old Whittier resident who caught the ball Ohtani hit into the right-field pavilion for his first residence run as a Dodger on April 3, met the Dodgers slugger and posed for footage with him earlier than Friday evening’s sport. “Simply shook Ohtani’s hand … by no means washing my hand once more,” Roman mentioned in a social media put up on X. “Finest birthday ever!” … Proper fielder Jason Heyward, put on the injured record due to lower-back tightness on April 3, took batting apply and ran wind sprints Friday and seems to be on monitor to return someday subsequent week. … Reliever Brusdar Graterol threw off a bullpen mound Friday for the primary time because the right-hander was put on the 60-day injured record due to shoulder irritation on April 2.