Chris Hatcher and the bullpen let down the Dodgers again during 4-2 loss to Arizona in home opener
Some of the sights and sounds of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ home opener to the 2016 season.
First base was empty, extending an invitation to Dodgers reliever Chris Hatcher. He had thrown three consecutive balls to Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, one of the finest hitters on the planet. He could choose passivity and grant Goldschmidt a walk with the score tied in the eighth inning. Or he could attempt some version of gallantry.
“You get behind a hitter like that, and everyone in the ballpark knows he’s swinging the bat,” Manager Dave Roberts said.
Said first baseman Adrian Gonzalez: “Obviously, he’s the one guy in the lineup . . .”
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Hatcher meant to throw a fastball out of the strike zone — “I’m not challenging him right there,” he said — but his alignment misfired, a regrettable mistake in a 4-2 defeat. He fed Goldschmidt a 96-mph fastball at the waist. Goldschmidt bashed a go-ahead home run about a dozen rows deep into the left-field pavilion.
In Tuesday’s home opener, the pattern from the weekend in San Francisco held. Everything the relievers touched turned to ash. Pedro Baez spoiled six scoreless innings from Kenta Maeda by allowing a tying homer in the seventh. Louis Coleman gave up two more runs in the ninth, rendering meaningless a run generated by Corey Seager in the bottom of the inning.
After a season-opening three-game sweep of San Diego, the Dodgers have lost four of five. The offense sputtered throughout Tuesday’s game and failed to excite the sellout crowd of 53,279 at Dodger Stadium. Through eight games, the earned-run average of the bullpen is 6.55.
“We’ve got to pick it up as a collective group, myself included in that,” Hatcher said. “The roller coaster’s got to stop. We’ve got to start putting up some zeros.”
The front office of Andrew Friedman made only marginal changes to the bullpen during the winter, adding Coleman and Joe Blanton, but otherwise sticking with the core from 2015. Roberts suggested it was too early to consider shaking up the group’s hierarchy.
Manager Dave Roberts discusses the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the Diamondbacks in their home opener on April 12.
“Right now, I’m not thinking about that at all,” Roberts said. “Right now, you want to continue to give these guys confidence and keep giving them opportunities.”
Perhaps it is too soon for Roberts to act. But it is also difficult to identify a reliever, save for closer Kenley Jansen, he can trust. Yimi Garcia has a 4.91 ERA; J.P. Howell has a 54.00 ERA. Hatcher, whose ERA is 5.40, had already surrendered a tying two-run homer to San Francisco backup catcher Trevor Brown in the eighth inning Friday.
Dodgers fans sounded exultant midway through the sixth inning, when Yasiel Puig and Justin Turner teamed on a relay to cut down catcher Welington Castillo at the plate and preserve a 1-0 Dodgers lead.
The Dodgers manufactured a run off Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin in the second inning. In his first game back from the disabled list, Howie Kendrick led off with a single. Trayce Thompson legged out an infield hit. Kendrick took third on a line out by Seager.
Up came A.J. Ellis. Corbin threw a changeup down the middle. Ellis dropped a squeeze bunt a few feet in front of the plate. The ball dribbled too far for Castillo to get back in time to tag Kendrick, so he threw out Ellis out at first as Kendrick scored the game’s first run.
After that, the lineup failed to advance a runner past second base against Corbin. So Baez inherited the slimmest of margins in the seventh. He retired the first two batters. With the count at 1-2 to shortstop Nick Ahmed, Baez threw a changeup at the shins. Amhed hooked a liner down the left-field line, just deep enough to clear the low fence.
“It was exactly where I wanted it,” Ellis said. “He hit a pitch that was borderline going to bounce.”
Hatcher could not claim anything similar. His first fastball to Goldschmidt veered well outside. His next two splitters missed low. He failed to execute his plan on the 3-0 pitch. His club paid the price.
Hatcher exited the game four batters later. He left the bases loaded. The crowd jeered his exit. “I deserved it,” he said.
The opposite sound greeted Roberts. The crowd applauded him for the maneuver, a reaction based more on relief than happiness. Satirical applause is not the sort of reception a manager desires.
After one week, the chief flaw on the Dodgers roster appeared clear. Roberts continued to support the bullpen — even if it has failed to support him.
“I expect to be ahead in a lot of games late,” Roberts said. “And we’re going to need them. If we want to have a great season, have a winning season, we’re going to need those guys in the ‘pen.”
Follow Andy McCullough on Twitter @McCulloughTimes
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