Despite a poor start by Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sat., Oct. 5, the Dodgers managed to eke out the crucial Game 1 win, 7-5, over the really quite repulsive San Diego Padres. (I won’t even start with Manny Machado‘s innate ugliness, but Fernando Tatis Jr.s’ 3rd base twirl after hitting home runs is grossly arrogant.)
Sadly, said Padres responded by spanking us, 10-2, the next day to even the NLDS series at 1-1.
It’s really hard to play baseball without starting pitchers.
Defense has generally been superb. Our hitting in Game 1 did the job, including a 3-run homer that was Shohei Ohtani‘s first ever postseason hit. And our bullpen shone bright in Game 1.
Game 2 was a different story altogether. The Dodger bats were dead against San Diego starter Yu Darvish. Our starter, Jack Flaherty, was shaky at best, and our bullpen SUCKED!
I have to keep hoping some miracle will turn Game 3 starter Walker Buehler into Greg Maddux at his prime. And Landon Knack in Game 4? I have no idea what to expect. Sometimes he’s great, other times he has to be bailed out by the bullpen.
We just have to hope Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez can remember how to hit.
NLDS GAME 1: Dodgers 7 – Padres 2
NLDS Game 2: Padres 10 – Dodgers 2
Side note: I was lucky enough to meet the official MLB scorekeeper for the Dodgers, Ed Munson, and we discussed the scoreboard situation. He said they knew they had a problem, because the pitch counts were often wrong, but they didn’t know how they got that way. He said the scoreboard operator was someone new this year. So I told him about the fourth-ball in a walk being counted as a strike, and he said he’d see what he could do about it. Thank you, Ed!
Piewalla's Dodger Blues 