SAN DIEGO — They were striking out all over the Gaslamp Quarter on Friday night – presumably in the bars, too. But probably not at the same rate.
Starting pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Michael King combined to strike out 21 batters over the first seven innings at Petco Park while allowing just three hits between them – one by Glasnow (a solo home run), two by King (soft singles).
But the San Diego Padres put together the game-winning rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, walking off with a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers on Luis Arraez’s RBI single off Michael Grove.
The loss snapped the Dodgers’ season-high seven-game winning streak and was only their third defeat in the past 17 games.
According to OptaStats, Friday’s game was the first time in the modern era (since 1901) both starting pitchers went at least seven innings while striking out 10 or more batters and allowing two hits or fewer.
“Some days as a position player, you don’t want to give any credit to a pitcher but tonight you have to give it to him,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said of King. “He had sinkers running back on the inside part, he had the four-seamer in there too and he was throwing front-door changeups and playing that off inside. Just a well-pitched ballgame on both sides.”
Part of the seven-player trade that landed Juan Soto in Yankees pinstripes, King dominated the Dodgers for seven scoreless innings, striking out 11.
During the sweet sixteen run before Friday (during which they went 14-2), the Dodgers averaged 6.25 runs per game and scored eight or more seven times. But King had the Dodgers overpowered from the start. He struck out four of the first five batters he faced and eight of the first 13, helped occasionally by a generous strike zone from home plate umpire Mike Estabrook.
“I think early on our guys were starting to wonder what was a strike, what wasn’t,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think it’s a credit to Michael because the ball was moving so much. I think both ways – whether you’re talking about the buffer zone or whatever – I think both teams got it. Overall … that wasn’t the reason Michael King was good tonight. It really wasn’t.”
The Dodgers’ only hits off King were a soft single (78.8 mph off the bat) to the opposite field by Shohei Ohtani in the third inning and a broken-bat bloop single by Freeman in the sixth.
The Dodgers only hit two more balls out of the infield against King – a fly out to right field by Mookie Betts in the first inning and a fly out to center field by Teoscar Hernandez in the seventh.
“I mean, at some point you just want him to get out of the game,” Freeman said. “We didn’t have any answers for him tonight. He was just really good. Seemed like he was hitting every spot that he needed to and you can see what good pitching does to a good lineup, you can shut it down. But Tyler was great, too.”
Indeed he was. Glasnow’s only mistake was a first-pitch fastball up in the zone to Padres catcher Luis Campusano with one out in the third inning. Campusano jumped on it for a solo home run – the only hit off Glasnow in seven innings. He struck out 10.
“That was a pretty good pitch,” Glasnow said. “Fastball up, 97 (mph) with good carry. I just tip my cap. It was a good swing.”
The Dodgers finally scratched out their only run of the night in the eighth inning after King left the game. Betts singled on a one-hop ground ball that deflected off the shin of lefty reliever Yuki Matsui. Ohtani doubled him to third base and Freeman tied the score with a sacrifice fly. The rally died from there when Max Muncy hit into an inning-ending double play.
After Blake Treinen retired the side in the eighth, Roberts’ options were limited in the high-leverage situations with Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol and Joe Kelly all on the injured list. Saving Daniel Hudson for a potential save situation in extra innings, Roberts went with Michael Grove in the ninth, hoping his success against right-handed hitters would carry the Dodgers into extra innings.
“It’s tough,” Roberts said. “I hate trying to use that as an excuse. But when you have three leverage guys not participating you’re trying to give guys opportunities. I thought Blake was great today and I felt good where Michael was at with that part of the lineup, bleeding into the top. It just didn’t work out.”
Grove gave up a leadoff double to Campusano but struck out Ha-Seong Kim. That brought up the left-handed Arraez, a two-time batting champ and one of the best contact hitters in baseball. Roberts stuck with Grove rather than walk Arraez, setting up a possible double play situation, or bringing in the left-hander Alex Vesia.
“You have to kind of think about Arraez versus Tatis and Cronenworth,” Roberts said of the next two hitters in the Padres’ lineup. “You’ve got to make a decision. For me, I just felt that, if we could pitch Arraez carefully, we get a chance to get to Tatis. I wasn’t going to concede Arraez to get to Tatis and bring (up) Cronenworth. Both those guys were swinging the bats really well and are really good hitters. You kind of pick your poison right there. Just didn’t work out.”
Arraez lined the first pitch he saw from Grove through the middle for a walk-off single.
“I don’t talk about playoff atmosphere too often in the regular season, but today, it felt like that,” Roberts said. “It was a packed house. I think Michael King threw his best game certainly of the year. I can’t imagine him throwing a better game ever. I mean, really. His velocity was up. He was on the corners all game. Everything was working tonight. We just really didn’t have an answer. Really didn’t take many good swings. He just dominated.
“And our guy did a great job tonight too. Tyler is on some type of run right now and we lost a game in the ninth. But overall a really good ballgame.”
