Dodgers fans can’t be happy right now.
It’s one thing to lose 1-0 to your hated rival, which is what took place in San Diego Monday night following Los Angeles’ defeat to the Padres.
It’s quite another to feel as if you beat yourself — which is exactly what the Dodgers did.
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Los Angeles finished 0-7 with running in scoring position, including three consecutive outs after Padres star closer Mason Miller walked the first two batters in the ninth inning.
Yet that wasn’t even the worse of it.
With two outs in the top of the sixth inning and trailing 1-0, the Dodgers had Shohei Ohtani at the plate and Hyeseong Kim — one of the teams fastest runners — on first base. After Ohtani had a swinging bunt up the third base line, Padres catcher Rodolfo Duran barehanded the ball and fired it to first base. However the throw went awry and shot into right field.
As Padres second baseman Fernando Tatis Jr. chased the ball down, Kim raced for third base. Tatis ended up bobbling the ball and with a full head of steam, it appeared Kim would score rather easily. However, Dodgers third base coach Dino Ebel elected to hold Kim up at third.
That moved proved costly as Padres pitcher Michael King got Mookie Betts to pop up to second base and the threat.
“You don’t know that he’s not going to come up with it clean,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame. “It’s one of those that, yeah, it’s unfortunate. Two outs. If we know something different, he probably would have done something different. But that’s a hard one.”
In a game as evenly matched as the top teams in the NL West, those sort of mistakes can be the difference between winning and losing — and this time, it came back to bite the Dodgers.
