SAN DIEGO — They were striking out all over the Gaslamp Quarter on Friday night – presumably in the bars, too.
Starting pitchers Tyler Glasnow and Michael King combined to strike out 21 batters over the first seven innings at Petco Park while allowing just three hits between them – one by Glasnow (a solo home run), two by King (soft singles).
The San Diego Padres put together the game-winning rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, walking off with a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers on Luis Arraez’s RBI single.
The loss snapped the Dodgers’ season-high seven-game winning streak and was only their third defeat in the past 17 games.
According to OptaStats, Friday’s game was the first time in the modern era (since 1901) both starting pitchers went at least seven innings while striking out 10 or more batters and allowing two hits or fewer.
Part of the seven-player trade that landed Juan Soto in Yankees pinstripes, King dominated the Dodgers for seven scoreless innings, striking out 11.
During the sweet sixteen run before Friday (during which they went 14-2), the Dodgers averaged 6.25 runs per game and scored eight or more seven times. But King had the Dodgers overpowered from the start. He struck out four of the first five batters he faced and eight of the first 13, helped occasionally by a generous strike zone from home plate umpire Mike Estabrook.
The Dodgers swung and missed 17 times, mostly against King’s fastball (six times) and changeup (eight). They managed to put in play just three of the 21 changeups King threw.
Their only hits off King were a soft single (78.8 mph off the bat) to the opposite field by Shohei Ohtani in the third inning and a broken-bat bloop single by Freddie Freeman in the sixth.
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The Dodgers only hit two more balls out of the infield against King – a fly out to right field by Mookie Betts in the first inning and a fly out to center field by Teoscar Hernandez in the seventh.
Glasnow was just as good. His only mistake was a first-pitch fastball up in the zone to Padres catcher Luis Campusano with one out in the third inning. Campusano jumped on it for a solo home run – the only hit off Glasnow in seven innings. He struck out 10.
The Dodgers finally scratched out their only run of the night in the eighth inning after King left the game. Betts singled on a one-hop ground ball that deflected off the shin of lefty reliever Yuki Matsui. Ohtani doubled him to third base and Freeman tied the score with a sacrifice fly. The rally died from there when Max Muncy hit into an inning-ending double play.
After Blake Treinen retired the side in the eighth, Michael Grove came on to face the bottom of the Padres’ order in the ninth. He gave up a leadoff double to Campusano and two batters later Arraez lined the walk-off single through the middle.
More to come on this story.
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