April 19th, 2021 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka You have to look hard in the box score to find it, but it’s there.
Oh, is it there.
The one play – or misplay – that prevented the Dodgers from sweeping the San Diego Padres in front of a COVID-19 sold-out Petco Park crowd on Sunday afternoon.
It occurred with no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning with the score tied 2-2 when Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager uncharacteristically airmailed a throw on a simple ground ball off the bat of Padres right fielder Jurickson Profar, drawing replacement first baseman Edwin Rios off the bag and allowing Profar to reach on an E-6. It is a play that the 2020 NLCS and World Series MVP has made thousands of times in his baseball life.
Instead of it being one out, the Padres now had the go-ahead run on first base, with Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth at the plate. Cronenworth popped out to Seager for what should have been the second out of the inning. Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol then walked ever-dangerous Padres shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. to put runners at first and second. He then got equally dangerous Padres third baseman Manny Machado to fly out to Dodgers left fielder Luke Raley who, but for Seager’s throwing error, should have been the final out of the inning.
He wasn’t.
Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer then singled to center, allowing Profar to score and Tatis Jr. to advance to third base. Padres left fielder Tommy Pham then doubled into the left field corner, scoring Tatis Jr. and Hosmer to give San Diego a 5-2 lead and eventual winning score.
“We didn’t make a play in that eighth inning early with Profar, but that’s going to happen,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Seager’s miscue postgame. “I trust our defense, the way we prepare, we practice, and that’s baseball.”
Although we will never know if the Dodgers might have gone on to win this one had Seager not committed his rare – and costly – error, breaking a 2-2 tie would have been considerably easier for the Dodgers than overcoming a 5-2 deficit.
It was … ‘The one that got away.’
Play Ball!
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Posted in 
Losing, to me, seems to hurt more when we’re wining. I guess no one likes to see a winning streak end. Those old feelings, “You win some, you lose some” and “You can’t win them all” come to mind, but I’m sure the Dodgers will shake this one off.