Shohei Ohtani tied a childhood idol with a signature first-inning home run and had doubles in the fifth and seventh innings on Friday night, but the Dodger‘the hottest hitter was left holding his bat in the on-deck circle during the final of a 8-7 loss, 11 innings for the San Diego Priests at Dodger Stadium.
Ohtani sparked an early attack on Padres starter Michael King with a first-inning solo home run to left-center field that gave him 175 career home runs, tying him with the former New York Yankees and Angels slugger Hideki Matsui for the most home runs by a Japanese-born major league player.
“I’m personally happy,” Ohtani said in Japanese via interpreter Will Ireton. “He’s known as a power hitter, a left-handed hitter like me. It’s an honor to be associated with someone like that. Obviously, it’s a big deal in the Japanese baseball industry, so I’m looking forward to the next one.”
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The Dodgers followed Ohtani’s lead by adding three more homers – a solo shot by Max Muncy, a three-run bomb by Mookie Betts and a Teoscar Hernandez two-run pitch, which increased his major league-leading RBI total to 17 – in the second and third innings to take a 7-3 lead and position Yoshinobu Yamamoto for a victory.
But San Diego torched the Dodgers’ bullpen for four runs in the sixth and seventh innings and cut it for another run in the 11th, while the Dodgers were unable to hurt the Padres’ bullpen in the final six innings, the difference in San Diego’s comeback victory in the face of a crowd of 49,606.
“At times we were very good at collecting hits and keeping the line moving, and in the last innings we expanded the zone and our shots got bigger,” manager David Roberts he said. “All you need is a base hit or controlling the strike zone, and we didn’t do a good job of that. We got a lead, but we could have done a better job shutting them down.”
Left-hander Ryan Yarbrough gave the Dodgers a chance by stranding the automatic runner at second base in the top of the 10th, and Will Smith advanced Freddie Freeman to third with a fly ball to center field to open the bottom of the 10th.
But after Muncy was intentionally picked off, Hernández hit three pitches from Enyel De Los Santos, and Kiké Hernández flied out to center against closer Roberto Suarez.
Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesiawho gave up two home runs earlier in the week, retired the first two batters in the 11th, but left an 0 and 2 fastball up and over the plate to rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill, who hit it to left-center field for an RBI single and an 8-7 Padres lead.
“Alex did a good job getting the upper hand against Merrill, and you just need to expand [the strike zone] right there,” Roberts said. “You have to take advantage of that kind of advantage, and we didn’t do that.”
Suarez retired Chris Taylor, who is 32 years old and has 17 strikeouts this season, Miguel Rojas and Betts in the bottom of the 11th. Left-hander Taylor Trammell was available off the bench, but Roberts defended his decision to go with right-hander Taylor.
“He needs to find his way,” Roberts said. “Chris created huge hits. So you have to set up the guys, get them there and hope they find their way.”
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Ohtani has certainly found his swing after a subdued start to the season, batting .458 (16-for-35) with four home runs, seven doubles and six RBIs in his last eight games. He hit four balls with exit velocities of 102 mph or more on Friday night and was robbed of extra bases when Merrill made a diving pitch in his second inning on the warning track in left center.
“Shohei, he’s doing it, man, he’s playing great baseball,” Roberts said. “He has that expression that he wants to be at the base. what he did every day in his preparation and just the talent is remarkable.”
Yamamoto, who lasted just one inning against the Padres in his Dodgers debut on March 21 in South Korea, giving up five runs and four hits in a 43-pitch outing, gave up three runs and four hits in five innings, striking out six and walking one, Friday night.
The 25-year-old right-hander was punished for two early errors, Manny Machado hit a hanging curveball for a two-run homer to left field in the first and Ha-Seong Kim hit a fat fastball into the left-field seats for a one-shot. solo in the second.
Yamamoto blanked the Padres over the next three innings, striking out Tyler Wade with a 95 mph fastball and Bogaerts eyeing an 80 mph curveball to end the fifth, but with his pitch count at 91, he was pulled after five.
“He did a good job adapting, but unfortunately, like most of his games, early on, he racks up a higher pitch count,” Roberts said. “Innings three, four and five, the breaking ball was sharp, the splitter was back, the fastball was good. But his pitch count was up at that point, and you just can’t take him back to sixth.”
Reliever Daniel Hudson surrendered a solo home run to Jake Cronenworth in the sixth, and Ryan Brasier gave up three runs in the seventh on an RBI groundout by Xander Bogaerts and a two-run homer by Fernando Tatis Jr. -7.
“Huddy left a breaking ball that fell to Cronenworth, but I thought other than that he was good,” Roberts said. “You know, Braser tonight, I just didn’t think he was smart, to be honest.”
Walker Buehler’s third minor league rehab, which began Friday, this time for Class A Rancho Cucamonga, was cut short after he was hit in the right hand by a return in the second inning.
The former Dodgers ace, who is recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, finished the inning but did not come out to third. Buehler gave up one run and three hits over two innings, with one walk and no strikeouts, and threw just 27 pitches, well below the 75-85 pitches he was scheduled to throw.
“I don’t think it was very serious,” Roberts said. “He left as a precaution.”
Buehler made his first two starts for triple-A Oklahoma City, giving up three earned runs and five hits, striking out eight and walking two in eight innings, and was scheduled to make at least one more minor league start on Thursday before returning when rotating.
Short heels
Ambar Roman, the 28-year-old Whittier resident who caught the ball that Ohtani hit in the right-field pavilion for his first home run as a Dodger on April 3, met the Dodgers slugger and posed for photos with him before Friday night’s game. “I just shook hands with Ohtani… I never washed my hand again,” Roman said in a social media post on X. “Best birthday ever!” … Right fielder Jason Heyward, placed on the injured list because of lower back tightness on April 3, took batting practice and ran sprints on Friday and appears to be on track to return next week. … Reliever Brusdar Graterol threw out a bullpen on Friday for the first time since the right-hander was placed on the 60-day injured list because of shoulder inflammation on April 2.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
