SAN DIEGO – The Dodgers seemed to be in cruise control for most of the game on Friday. Clinging to a 2-0 lead with Clayton Kershaw on the mound in the seventh, it seemed like almost a certainty that they would go on to win the game, and then they collapsed.
Kershaw surrendered a solo home run to Clint Barmes before he was taken out of the game for right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia. Garcia 's next pitch to Wil Myers was a routine pop fly to the pitcher, but Garcia didn't get out of the way of the charging Justin Turner and the two ran into each other as the ball dropped on the ground.
"I called it, but I think he was trying to duck and get out of the way but he went the same direction I was going," Turner said of the bizarre play. "I was going into catch it. Regardless, we have to make that play."
A batter later, Derek Norris crushed a fastball off the brick Western Metal Supply Co. building in left and the Dodgers had coughed up the lead and were trailing 3-2.
But the Dodgers would rally in the top of the eighth. Turner tied the game with an RBI single, and Cuban sensation, Alex Guerrero, put them over the top with a pinch-hit, bloop single that plated the winning run, and Los Angeles would defeat the Padres 4-3.
"A win is a win," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "Clayton pitched great, we made some mistakes, but at the end of the day we put a win on the board."
Besides the homer to Barmes, Kershaw was his dominant self as the reigning NL MVP winner struck out 11 batters allowing just one run on four hits in 6.2 innings on Friday. Kershaw appears to have returned to Cy Young form striking out 39 batters while allowing just three runs in his last four starts.
"If I don't give up that homer in the seventh, we might get out of there 2-0 with the win," Kershaw said of his mistake to Barmes. "But at the end of the day, it's another win for us, so it's a good day."
San Diego's starting pitching Odrisamer Despaigne allowed two runs (one earned) on six scattered hits in 6.1 innings in a no decision for the Padres. Adrian Gonzalez and A.J. Ellis each knocked in a run off Despaigne in the third and fourth innings, respectively.
Kershaw took a line drive off the hip in the first inning, but was able to remain in the game. Padres slugger, Justin Upton, was the culprit and the ball hit Kershaw at an estimated 107mph off the bat of the first half MVP candidate.
Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez was ejected in the seventh inning after the grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. Gonzalez claimed that home plate umpire Doug Eddings told him that he needed to swing at balls if he wanted to stay in the game.
"He told me I had to keep swinging at that pitch, which was clearly a ball, or he was going to keep calling it," Gonzalez said of the verbal altercation with Eddings. "At that point, there was no way I was gonna stay in this game if I made an out. I wanted him to toss me, I made sure he was going to toss me, and he tossed me. Now I want to have a nice conversation with Joe Torre."
Joe Torre is the former manager of the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers and currently the executive vice president of baseball operations and reviews instances of ejections.
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