Jarrod Saltalamacchia homered and drove in four runs, and Francisco Rodriguez struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the game with the bases loaded as Detroit handed Miami ace Jose Fernandez his first loss in 27 career starts at home.
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So, we’re yet to see Maeda pitch against a team that can score runs – we have no evidence the Padres are capable of this, given they are on pace to score zero runs in 2016 and all – but this was about all you can ask for out of a debut.
As a team, the Dodgers are completely obliterating San Diego.
Now, if Major League Baseball could be convinced to let the Dodgers play the Padres all 162 games this season, they could clinch a playoff spot by the All-Star break.
San Diego mustered just two singles against Kazmir and company, giving them a grand total of six hits over their first two contests.
The Dodgers joined the 1963 Cardinals in winning their first three games by shutouts.
The right-hander signed an eight-year deal with the Dodgers in January after spending eight seasons with the Hiroshima Carp of the Japanese Central League. Obviously not everything is going to be this easy, but that’s one impressive and smooth start to the season for the Dodgers, once again dreaming about the World Series in October.
Carlos Villaneuva logged 3 innings of mop-up relief and allowed a home run to Yasiel Puig, who is looking completely revitalized this year after a down year in 2015.
“I don’t think this is the way anyone draws it up”, Padres manager Andy Green said.
The Padres haven’t had a runner in scoring position against a Dodges starting pitcher yet this season. They set the Major League Baseball mark with 27 straight scoreless innings to open a season. The old mark was 26 by the 1943 St. Louis Browns, according to STATS. Kershaw, the highest paid player in baseball, had 7 innings with one hit and nine strikeouts.
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Cashner laboured in the first, throwing 43 pitches, and the Dodgers jumped on him for four runs on four hits. “When you’ve got No. 1s going against each other, you don’t expect to get that many hits and score that many runs”. He pitched six innings, threw 84 pitches and only allowed five hits while striking out four. Wil Myers hit a ground ball to first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who threw to catcher A.J. Ellis in pursuit of a hard out at home plate. It was also the first Dodgers’ dinger of the season, so don’t feel too bad, Padres. A triple by Chase Utley was followed by an RBI single from Justin Turner, an RBI double by Carl Crawford and a two-run single by Joc Pederson for a fast 4-0 advantage. Green did mention there would be some moving parts when I spoke to him ahead of the opening day game on Monday, but he is still solid in his decision in pitchers, especially Tuesday’s starter, James Shields.
