Suffice to say, the home debut of newest Dodger Manny Machado did not go as planned. Oh sure, you can fluff it up by arguing that he did hit his first home run at Dodger Stadium with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. But by then nearly all of the Manny Machado welcoming committee – adorned in T-shirts that spelled out  ‘MANNYWOOD 2.0’ – were long gone.

It was 10 years ago to the day that the original Mannywood was born, when the Dodgers acquired Manny Ramirez in a blockbuster trade with the Boston Red Sox. Unfortunately, Mannywood 2.0 got off to lesser start.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

“I should have hit that a couple innings before, when I had a couple runners in scoring position to tie the game up,” said Machado of his fourth-inning strikeout with two outs and runners on second and third. “A little late for that. We’re here to win games. Come out with a loss like that, not fun.”

Not fun indeed.

Unfortunately, Machado’s first Dodger Stadium home run came with one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth when the game was well out of hand instead of the third inning when there were runners at second and third. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But it wasn’t just the four-time All-Star, two-time Gold Glove winner and Platinum Glove winner who sent the initial Dodger Stadium crowd of 44,923 home disappointed in Monday night’s four-game series opener with the hard-charging National League Central second place Milwaukee Brewers. In fact, it was Machado who scored both of the Dodgers runs in the eventual 5-2 Dodgers loss. The real culprit – as is often the case – were the 11 runners that the Dodgers left stranded on base, including going an ugly 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, two of which were left stranded on third base.

“One piece is getting guys on base, and tonight I loved the at-bats,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the game. “Guys taking walks, we got those guys to use [Brewers reliever Josh] Hader in the fifth inning. We just couldn’t come up with the big hit.”

…or even a small one.

Without question, the most painful non-‘big hit’ was when Dodgers shortstop Chris Taylor struck out with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the third inning off of Brewers starter Freddy Peralta … on three pitches. It was as ugly of an at-bat as Taylor has ever had in a Dodgers uniform.

It’s hard to argue that Chris Taylor’s bases loaded, three-pitch strikeout to end the third inning on Monday night wasn’t the turning point of the game. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Of course, the lack of timely hitting was only part of the problem during Monday night’s game, which also saw a 23-minute power outage that cause the stadium to go dark. For the second time in as many starts, Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda gave up a devastating three-run home run, this one to Brewers first baseman Eric Thames, to give the Brewers a (then) 4-0 lead and put the game out of reach for the suddenly struggling Dodgers.

“I just don’t think he was sharp tonight from the get-go,” Roberts said of Maeda. “The fastball command just wasn’t there. Got behind the eight-ball early, they stressed him. The second and third innings, he was better, but in the fourth inning the fastball velocity was down.”

Yep, it’s gone.
(Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

But alas, there’s another game tomorrow, as they say. In fact, Machado said it himself after his Dodger Stadium debut.

“Forget about what happened today, tomorrow’s a new day. Go home, get some rest, and come back at it tomorrow.”

Tomorrow it is.

Play Ball!