A night after having four Dodgers pitchers throw a combined no-hitter at them the Padres beat L.A. 7-4 on Saturday night in Monterrey, Mexico. Although the win was nice there is a larger problem brewing.
First, some good stuff.
Outfielder Travis Jankowski led off the game with a triple off of Dodgers starter Kenta Maeda to take the pressure off after Friday’s no-no and scored when 1st baseman Eric Hosmer went deep to right field to give the Padres a 2-0 lead. The issue is the guy on the hill couldn’t hold it again.
Starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell was sporadic and ineffective. The man they wanted so badly they decided to take on $13 million of Chase Headley’s contract tossed 2.1 innings, gave up three runs on five hits (including a Matt Kemp home run), walked three and struck out two before getting pulled by an obviously frustrated manager Andy Green.
Robbie Erlin came in to mop up and tossed 2.2 shutout innings to keep the game from getting away. Erlin only needed 24 pitches while Mitchell threw 55. Mitchell has not made it out of the 5th inning in three of his seven starts and might be forcing the Padres to remove him from the starting rotation.
The right-hander is out of minor league options so they can’t send him down to work out the kinks. A move to the bullpen might be in order.
San Diego’s offense was able to overcome the shaky start. Down 4-3 in the 6th inning catcher Raffy Lopez launched his first home run as a Padre off Dodgers reliever Josh Fields, a 2-run blast to put the Friars up 5-4. They tacked on two more in the 8th on singles by Headley and Carlos Asuaje then let closer Brad Hand work a scoreless 9th inning for the save.
The Padres can win the series from the Dodgers on Sunday at Estadio de Beisbol Monterrey when rookie Eric Lauer takes the mound against Ross Stripling.
