In the rubber game of the first hard-fought series against the two-time World Champion Dodgers, the San Diego Padres were utterly punchless against Shohei Ohtani and their rivals up the freeway.

The Padres lost 3-0 in a game that wasn’t competitive from the beginning until the end.

The scoring started early as Ohtani took Randy Vasquez deep to center on the very first pitch of the game, giving LA an early 1-0 lead. Vasquez would later give up a double and a walk, but got Andy Pages to ground into a double play. Teoscar Hernandez would bring in another run in the second on a sacrifice fly, scoring Max Muncy, who led off the inning with a double.

In fact, the Dodgers had two runs and six hits off the Padres’ right-hander before the Friars would get their first hit of the game in the third, a single by the red-hot Gavin Sheets. Unfortunately, while the Padres would put two men on base, they were unable to score as flyouts by Machado and Bogaerts ended the threat.

Ohtani’s leadoff home run led to additional problems as Jackson Merrill left the game in the top of the fourth with some sort of back or shoulder injury. Bryce Johnson replaced Merrill.

The Padres put together a rally against Ohtani in the 5th inning as Bryce Johnson, Castellanos (then Ramon Laureano), and Freddy Fermin were on the bases with one out, before the struggling Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the first pitch of his at-bat into an inning-ending double play.

https://x.com/MLB/status/2057284986391187629?s=20

In the end, the Padres turned in a stinker of a rubber match, looking overmatched and punchless across the board before Teoscar Hernandez’s solo home run in the top of the ninth emphatically ended the game.

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Vasquez would only get one out in the 4th inning before he was replaced by Wandy Peralta, leaving men on first and third base. Vasquez had one of his worst outings of the year, going 4 1/3 innings with six hits, three earned runs, no strikeouts, and three walks. While the final line doesn’t look bad, he was completely ineffective in his outing.

Peralta immediately gave up an RBI single to Kyle Tucker, making it 3-0 before getting Andy Pages to hit into his second double play of the game. Peralta would then go on to pitch a clean 6th inning, while Yuki Matsui produced a 1-2-3 7th inning, which included a double to Mookie Betts, who was caught stealing third by Fermin. Matsui would leave in the 8th after putting two men on base with one out, replaced by Ron Marinaccio, who managed to get out of the jam. He did give up the home run to Hernandez in the top of the 9th before getting the next three batters out.

Othani pitched an effective five innings with three hits, no runs, two walks, and four strikeouts. While not impressive compared to his prior pitching performances, Othani’s ERA dropped to 0.73 for the year. Eduardo Hernandez pitched a perfect sixth inning in relief, as did Blake Treinen in the 7th inning and Kyle Hurt in the 8th inning before Will Klein ended the game in the 9th.

The Padres get a very needed off day Thursday before welcoming in the Sacramento Athletics to Petco for a three-game series; Walker Buehler will be back on the mound for the Friars, while the A’s, as of publication, have not announced their starter.

Loren Casuto

A Native San Diegan, Loren has spent his entire life not only as a fan but an active participant in San Diego’s sports world. In 2006 Loren joined two other die hard Charger fans to create Bolttalk, where Loren was a co-host and regular columnist from 2006 until the Chargers left in 2017. After that he started another podcast, The Grid Podshow, from 2020-2021 with his former co-host and colleague, speaking about the local sports community and popular culture.

When he’s not giving his opinion about San Diego sports, Loren is an adjunct professor at San Diego State and an attorney.