Dodgers Continue to Flail against Padres

The Benny Hill Show theme song that played after the third inning showing home video bloopers seemed like a more appropriate soundtrack for the entire game for the Dodgers. Base running gaffes, throwing errors and their inability to get a runner home doomed the Dodgers in their 10-5 loss to the first place San Diego Padres.

“You make your own breaks,” manager Joe Torre said. “We have to start doing more things right and fewer things wrong.”

Things got off to a seemingly good start as the Dodgers managed three consecutive two-out singles against Padres’ starter Clayton Richard (W, 9-5). But on the last single hit by Casey Blake, James Loney was tagged out at third before Matt Kemp touched home plate.

“We had a situation where one runner didn’t run fast enough and the other one ran too fast,” Torre said. “They were both at fault.”

However Torre did place a lot of onus on Loney.

“James has to be mindful of watching the guy in front of him and making sure that he’s going to score. He can’t be going to third base if it’s going to be a slide.”

However Kemp did admit he could’ve hustled a tad more.

“I probably should have ran a little bit harder,” Kemp admitted. “I think Loney was hustling trying to stretch it, get on third base and make some things happen. If I just ran a bit harder we wouldn’t be talking about that now.”

The Dodgers eventually reached a streak of seven hits without scoring a run after the first three innings. However after Richards walked Russell Martin and Ryan Theriot in the fourth inning, pinch hitter Ronnie Belliard hit a single that scored Martin. Kemp brought in another run when his single that was bobbled by second baseman Jerry Hairston, Jr. went into left field and scored Theriot.

Of course the insertion of Belliard meant Hiroki Kuroda’s (L, 8-10) night was over after a disastrous top of the fourth inning. A three-run homer by Will Venable and a key error by Russell Martin’s throw to second on Richard’s sacrifice bunt that set the stage for Miguel Tejada’s two RBI single gave the Padres a 5-0 lead.

“I was pitching well and I just threw a mistake pitch [to Venable],” Kuroda said through translator Kenji Nimura. “It was a 0-1 pitch, and I wanted to locate it a little lower. It stayed up a little bit, and he hit a home run. I still thought it was a good pitch.”

The Padres added two more runs in the fifth inning on an RBI single by Yorvit Torrealba and a sacrifice fly by Venable and three more runs in the sixth inning on Chase Headley’s homer for a 10-2 lead.

But the Dodgers added two in the bottom of sixth on Furcal’s and Kemp’s RBI singles.

The lone bright spot for the Dodgers was Kemp’s career high five hits that he capped off with a solo homer in the eighth inning to cut the lead to 10-5.

“I’m just trying to put the ball in play, try to make some things happen,” Kemp said. “Unfortunately we didn’t win the game.”

TONIGHT’S ACTION

LA Angels at Baltimore Orioles. Trevor Bell (1-2, 6.46 ERA) vs. Jeremy Guthrie (4-11, 4.23 ERA). 4:05 pm FSWest, AM 830 KLAA.

San Diego Padres at LA Dodger. Mat Latos (11-4, 2.45 ERA) vs. Ted Lilly (3-8, 3.69 ERA). 7:10 pm KCAL9, AM 790 KABC.