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“It’s Dinger Day at Dodger Stadium.” – Dodgers Broadcaster Stephen Nelson

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If “Chicks Dig the Long Ball,” there were alot of happy chicks at Dodger Stadium on Friday night, where the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres hit a combined eight of them, four apiece. They were, in chronological order:

1. Padres designated hitter Manny Machado in the top of the first to make it 2-0 Padres
2. Dodgers designated hitter Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the first to make it 2-1 Padres
3. Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim in the top of the second to make it 3-1 Padres
4. Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy in the bottom of the second to make it 3-2 Padres
5. Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts in the bottom of the second to make it 5-3 Dodgers
6. Dodgers right fielder Teoscar Hernández in the bottom of the third to make it 7-3 Dodgers
7. Padres first baseman Jake Cronenworth in the top of the sixth to make it 7-4 Padres
8. Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 7-7

Unfortunately, the Dodgers would lose ‘Dinger Day’ by a score of 8-7 in the top of the 11th inning on a single to right off of beleaguered Dodgers left-hander Alex Vesia (again) by Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill to score placed runner José Azocar from second base.

“Alex did a nice job until, you know, he gets (0-2) count leverage to Merrill, and, you know, you just gotta expand right there and… umm… you gotta take advantage of count leverage, and we didn’t do that tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said postgame, yet again trying to minimize the unminimizable struggles of his 28-year-old left-hander.

But back to the dingers. Ohtani’s first-inning 403-foot blast to center field was his fourth of the season and the 175th of his career, tying him with former New York Yankees great Hideki Matsui for the most home runs by a Japanese-born player.

“Honestly, I’m very honored to be a part of this, and I’m sure it’s a big deal in the baseball industry, too,” Ohtani said postgame of his record-tying home run through interpreter Will Ireton.

And then there’s that Betts fellow. Mookie’s second-inning 409-foot three-run monster blast to left-center field was his team-leading sixth home run of the season and gave him 14 RBIs on the season and his team-leading 20th run scored this season.

Teoscar Hernández’s third-inning 360-foot two-run shot into the Padres bullpen gave him his team-leading 17 RBIs of the season.

With their four home runs on Friday night, the Padres now have 18 on the young season and were more than all but four entire MLB teams.

When asked to describe Friday night’s game in one word, former Dodger and current Dodgers broadcaster Rick Monday answered: “Souvenirs.”

Play Ball!

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