Through the first two games of the 2022 National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres the Dodgers have scored a total of eight runs.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that Dave Roberts‘ team has yet to score even one run off of the Bob Melvin‘s bullpen in 9.1 innings – zero, zip, zilch, nada, a goose egg.
The problem, and it is a HUGE one, is that the (so-called) best team in baseball has left 16 runners on base in the two games and are a combined 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position (0-for-8 on Wednesday night, during which they left the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning).
“We had some good situations in our favor there, but we didn’t get the job done,” said Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy, who hit a solo home run off Padres starter Yu Darvish in the second inning. “It’s a little frustrating, but tomorrow is a new day, we’ll recover, head down to San Diego and get ready for Friday.”
“We had a lot of guys on base today. That’s kind of the positive, but we didn’t get them in,” echoed Dodgers shortstop Trea Turner, who also hit a solo home run off Darvish in the bottom of the third inning but also made a huge error in the top of the sixth to give the Padres a (then) 4-3 lead in the eventual 5-3 Dodgers loss. “That was probably the difference in the game is all those people we had on base and opportunities. We just get a hit here or there and that could have made the game change really quick.”
Speaking of geese, under the category of: ‘Now there’s something you don’t see every day,’ Wednesday night’s game had a rare (yes, it has happened before) ‘goose delay’ when a wayward goose decided to talk a little rest in the field of play in the bottom of the eight inning. Unfortunately. the ‘Rally Goose’ was only good for a Gavin Lux singe and a Trayce Thompson walk, as pinch hitter Austin Barnes flied out to center to end the inning, stranding the goose-assisted runners on base. The goose was subsequently captured unharmed by stadium personnel and turned over to animal control officials.
Unfortunately, the Dodgers goose was cooked, with the series now tied at a game apiece.
After Thursday’s off day, Game-3 of the 2022 NLDS will be on Friday evening at Petco Park in San Diego, with first pitch scheduled for 5:37 p.m. PT. Right-hander Tony ‘Goose’ Gonsolin, fresh off the IL, with get the start for the Dodgers, opposite Padres left-hander Blake Snell.
Play Ball!
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I’m a little surprised Roberts is going with Gonsolin being that he’s only pitched 2 innings in almost 2 months. I guess he doesn’t want the Padres to see 3 left handed starters in a row if he starts Anderson. I think Andrew Heaney will have to cover a few innings in this game.
During his Zoom presser on Thursday afternoon, Roberts said that Gonsolin is built up to 75 pitches.
75 pitches is 4 maybe 5 innings if Gonsolin is efficient. Let’s hope they are quality pitches.