Things did not go well for the Padres in Los Angeles on Saturday night.
On defense they made a pair of errors and let a few balls that should have been caught fall in to give the Dodgers a few runs. But on offense they had little to no success trying to get a bat on what Walker Buehler was throwing at them.
The Dodgers youngster tossed a complete game with 15 strikeouts in a 4-1 Los Angeles win. Buehler was dominant, allowing just four singles in the first seven innings. The only run he allowed was a solo home run by Manuel Margot in the 8th inning. Buehler finished his fantastic night striking out Manny Machado and Eric Hosmer.
It was Hosmer who made another defensive miscue that sank what was a pretty good start by Cal Quantrill. The San Diego rookie gave up a solo home run to Justin Turner in the 4th inning then was betrayed by his defense in the 5th.
After allowing a double and a single it looked like Quantrill would get out of the jam with minimal damage when he induced a double play ball from Matt Beaty but 2nd baseman Greg Garcia got handcuffed, dropped it and could only get an out at 2nd base. Will Smith scored to make it a 2-0 game with just one out and a runner at 1st.
Buehler tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt and Hosmer tried to get Beaty at 2nd base but made a terrible throw that skipped into centerfield to put runners at the corners. Quantrill got Joc Pederson to pop out to Machado at 3rd then Max Muncy hit a pop up to left field.
Muncy threw his bat in frustration thinking he'd made an easy out. Rookie Josh Naylor, who is still learning how to play the outfield after spending most of his life at 1st base, couldn't get to it. Another run scored on the single that probably should have been caught.
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Turner made it 4-0 with a soft looper that fell in front of Hunter Renfroe in right field and with the way Buehler was throwing that was more than enough. The Padres can still split their 4-game series if they win on Sunday behind rookie Chris Paddack. The Sheriff gets the ball against Kenta Maeda.
