The night started with frustration for the home plate umpire.
It ended with him Dodgers be frustrated with themselves.
The teams defeat 2-1 to the San Diego Padres on Friday might not have been decided until the bottom of the ninth inning, when Luis Arráez singled to thrill the Padres portion of a divided crowd of 43,338.
In reality, however, it was the Dodgers’ own inability at the plate that doomed them to failure at Petco Park.
They initially resented the large strike zone of home plate umpire Mike Estabrook (who, to be fair, also gave some generous calls to Dodger pitchers). They were later stumped by Padres starter Michael King, who recorded 11 strikeouts in a scoreless seven-inning start.
In the end, however, the Dodgers only had themselves to blame.
Tyler Glasnow He provided another strong start, allowing just one run, a home run to Luis Campusano in the third inning, while striking out 10 in seven innings to lower his ERA to 2.53.
Their lineup still outproduced San Diego, recording four hits and four walks to San Diego’s three hits and two walks.
However, in their fourth six-game loss against the Padres this season, the Dodgers still couldn’t find a way to prevail, snapping the team’s seven-game winning streak in the first of their three games against the rival Padres this weekend. week.
The Dodgers (26-14) had a chance to flip the script, putting runners on second and third with no outs while trailing 1-0 in the eighth inning. However, they scored only once, on Freddie Freeman’s sacrifice fly, and were hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position.
That set the stage for the ninth inning, when Campusano tagged reliever Michael Grove for a double before Arráez finished it off with his single.
The game highlighted some of the depth concerns at the bottom of the Dodgers’ lineup, an area of particular intrigue right now as outfielder Jason Heyward nears his return from a back injury.
On Friday, Heyward took live at-bats for the first time since going on the disabled list a month ago. He will undergo two more live BP sessions on Saturday and Monday, and then begin a rehab assignment next week.
That means that, with his return likely in the coming weeks, the Dodgers will have to begin evaluating who on the current roster could make way for Heyward’s eventual return.
Andy Pages originally seemed like just a temporary replacement. But he quickly turned his one-way ticket into a one-way destination, seemingly unlikely to be knocked down given his .300 batting average and .850 OPS.
Gavin Lux (.183 average) and Kiké Hernández (.211) struggled early on, but have shown signs of life recently.
That leaves outfielder James Outman and utility man Chris Taylor as the two most likely candidates, at present, to be removed from the list.
Outman went hitless with one strikeout in three at-bats on Friday, lowering his season batting average to .158 and keeping his strikeout rate above 30%.
Taylor, surprisingly, has been even worse. He is just 4-for-56 with 28 strikeouts (his 41.2% K rate is the only one on the team worse than Outman), as he tries to overcome a failed offseason swing change.
Despite having the second-fewest at-bats on the team, ahead of only catcher Austin Barnes, Taylor has already amassed nearly one complete victory. below replacement, according to Baseball Reference, one of several shocking statistics that illustrate his woeful first month.
The big difference between Taylor and Outman is the status of their contracts.
Outman is a second-year player who can be transferred to the minors. Taylor has two years left, including this one, and about $30 million remaining on the contract he signed as a free agent after his lone All-Star season in 2021.
Read more: ‘He’s on a mission’: How Max Muncy quelled concerns about his defense at third base
In other words, while Outman has been slightly better than Taylor this year, he is also the easiest player to get off the MLB roster, particularly for a Dodgers team with little proven position player depth in the minors.
As Dave Roberts has repeatedly pointed out in recent days, the club is not making any final decisions yet. They still have some time until Heyward returns. There are still many games left for the squad’s circumstances to change.
“As with anything, you just don’t know how it’s going to play out,” Roberts said.
However, the manager added, ominously, “I think there are a couple of different options to consider.”
The need to do so became clear again Friday, on one of the rare nights in recent memory when the Dodgers failed to get their bats going.
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
