As the injuries to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitchers mounted during spring training, the team’s chances of getting off to a good start in defending its NL West crown appeared to dim.
Then they ran into the San Diego Padres, and all was right with the Dodgers’ rotation again.
The Padres set a major league record for offensive futility to start a season when they got shut out by the Dodgers for the third game in a row Wednesday, a 7-0 victory that left the total score for the series at 25-0, L.A.
No team had ever gone scoreless over the first 27 innings of a season until San Diego was blanked yet again, this time by rookie right-hander Kenta Maeda and three relievers, to surpass the 1943 St. Louis Cardinals by one inning for the longest such stretch of hitting failure.
And except for the sixth inning Wednesday, when Cory Spangenberg was thrown out at the plate on a grounder to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez – a play that was upheld after replay review – the Padres haven’t come all that close to scoring. They amassed 11 hits over the three games at Petco Park.
Certainly, some of the credit should go to the Dodgers’ pitchers.
San Diego faced three-time Cy Young Award winner Clayton Kershaw in the opener, and all he did was retire the last 13 batters he faced and strike out nine in seven innings of one-hit ball. The next night, the Padres managed the same number of hits in six innings against Scott Kazmir, who may not be on par with former Dodgers’ co-ace Zack Greinke but was an All-Star as recently as 2014.
Maeda certainly doesn’t have that kind of track record on these shores, as he was making his major league debut after eight stellar seasons in Japan. He was a bit more generous, yielding five hits but no walks in six innings.
The Padres coaxed a total of two walks – both in the opener – and struck out 28 times over the 27 innings, supporting manager Andy Green’s contention that they’re “collectively pressing.’’
In fact, Maeda delivered more offense with one swing, the one that produced his fourth-inning home run off Andrew Cashner, than San Diego did over the three games. Maeda, Kershaw and Kazmir combined to go 2-for-9 at the plate in the series for a .222 batting average, or nearly twice the Padres’ mark of .120 (11-for-92).
Now, as much fun as it might be to dump on the Padres – whose offseason maneuvers pointed to a change of direction from the previous year’s go-for-broke approach – it’s also instructive to remember these were just three games. Three comically inept games for the offense, but three out of 162 nonetheless.
And for what it’s worth, those Stan Musial-led Cardinals of ’43 wound up finishing second in scoring in the NL and winning the pennant.
A look at the Padres’ lineup reveals no Musial-like figures, but it does contain some established hitters who should get them going sooner or later, including the likes of Matt Kemp, Wil Myers and Derek Norris.
However, the Padres also lost two of their top three home run hitters – Justin Upton and Jedd Gyorko – from a club that finished 10th in the NL in scoring. Nothing shakes an offense out of its doldrums like the quick strike of a home run.
So it’s entirely possible San Diego will have a similarly salutary effect on other clubs’ pitching staffs as it did on Los Angeles. The proof may come on the Padres’ upcoming seven-game trip, which stops in two of the most generous hitters’ ballparks in the game, Colorado’s Coors Field (beginning Friday) and Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.
Equally silent performances from their offense may confirm the notion the Padres will be collecting goose eggs at an unparalleled clip this year.
