LOS ANGELES — The sun’ll come out tomorrow.
Bet your bottom dollar, the Dodgers will be glad to see it after a 10-day stretch of unseasonably chilly weather at home and all-too-typical Midwest spring sogginess on the road.
The start of Sunday’s game was delayed 36 minutes by the latest round of rain moving through Southern California, making for a Dodger Stadium rarity – rain delays in consecutive games (Saturday’s start was delayed over two hours).
Even sloppier than the weather, though, was the Dodgers pitching. Starter James Paxton and the bullpen walked 14 batters in the game, fueling a 6-3 victory for the San Diego Padres.
Four of the Padres’ six runs were scored by runners who reached base on a walk.
While battling the elements over the past fortnight, the Dodgers have gone 4-5, losing series to the Cubs in Chicago and the Padres at home.
The 14 walks by Dodgers pitchers are the most issued in a game since they walked 16 New York Mets on June 29, 1962. It matched a franchise record for the Padres who also drew 14 walks against the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 25, 1979 — in 19 innings.
Paxton walked a career-high eight but still managed to dodge danger with a pair of double-play ground outs and a replay-assisted caught stealing. The Padres got to him for just one run in the first five innings – 418-foot solo home run by Manny Machado in the top of the fourth.
The Dodgers topped that in the bottom of the inning.
Freddie Freeman led off with a double into the right-field corner off Padres starter Yu Darvish. Will Smith drove him in with an RBI single and Max Muncy followed with a two-run homer to give the Dodgers the lead, 3-1.
That lead disappeared in the sixth inning without a ball leaving the infield.
Paxton walked the first two batters in the inning and was finally pulled by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts after throwing 95 pitches, only 50 for strikes.
But Ryan Brasier made it three consecutive walks to open the inning and load the bases before getting Luis Campusano to bounce into the Padres’ third double play of the game.
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A run scored on the play, though. And the tying run scored when Mookie Betts smothered Jackson Merrill’s ground ball on the outfield grass behind second base but couldn’t throw Merrill out at first.
The Dodgers’ bullpen helped the Padres take the lead in the seventh inning.
J.P. Feyereisen retired just one of the five batters he faced, walking two and giving up a three-run double off the center field wall by Jurickson Profar.
Depleted by the delayed arrivals of Brusdar Graterol (on the 60-day Injured List with a shoulder problem) and Blake Treinen (recovering from a spring rib injury), the Dodgers’ bullpen has been a trouble spot so far this season with an ERA of 4.69, a 1.32 WHIP and 12 home runs allowed in 18 games.
