The Padres scored two early runs off Clayton Kershaw, and that proved to be enough as the Dodger offense was dormant against the, umm, crafty Wade LeBlanc. The Dodgers were feeble at the plate against the soft-tossing lefty, and lost 2-0.
The Dodgers were hitless in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. The one positive was that we finally got to see Jim Thome pinch hit, and he delivered a single into the gap in right center field in the eighth inning with one out. Matt Kemp was on first, and had thoughts of trying to score, but he was held up at the last minute by Larry Bowa. It was probably the right call, but given the state of the offense recently he might as well have tried it.
Kershaw has a 2.75 ERA over his last nine starts, yet has no wins to show for it. The Dodgers are amazingly 1-8 in those games.
Since the 17-run outburst against Milwaukee, the Dodger offense has averaged 3.66 runs per game over their last 29 games.
But, the beauty of baseball is that there is almost always a game tomorrow to make you forget about today. Tomorrow night, Randy Wolf battles rookie Mat Latos in game two against the Padres.
WP - Wade LeBlanc (1-1): 6 IP, 2 hits, 3 strikeouts
LP - Clayton Kershaw (8-8): 6 IP, 4 hits, 2 runs (1 earned), 3 walks, 3 strikeouts
Sv - Heath Bell (34): 1.1 IP, 1 hit, 1 strikeout