April 4, 2017

The Padres got 8 shutout inning from Clayton Richard on Tuesday night, and they defeated the Dodgers 4-0 at Chavez Ravine.

Yangervis Solarte hit a home run and the Dodgers grounded into four double plays on this night.  The Dodgers were limited to just 5 hits after exploding for 14 hits and 14 runs the day before.

“Clayton’s goal is to put the ball on the ground and he’s a high percentage sinker,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “When he’s doing that, he’s going to be tough.”

Corey Seager went 0-4 for the boys in blue, with a strikeout, and hit into two double plays.  Kenta Maeda went 5 innings, and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits in the loss.

“It’s a long season,” Maeda said. “We still have a lot of games to play.  I was a little bit too excited, being the season opener,” he said through a translator. “(Richard) really moved the ball well and kept the hitters off balance. He kept the rhythm off balance, which is something I wasn’t able to do for my team.”

Solarte also had an RBI single in the 1st inning to put the Padres ahead 1-0.  As sacrifice fly from Ryan Schimpf made it 2-0 after the one inning.  After Solarte’s solo blast in the 3rd, Will Myers tacked on an RBI single in the 8th.  That was all the scoring the Padres needed.

The game brought back memories of the Dodgers’ struggles against left handers last year.  “I hate to go back to last year, but it feels like they were anxious at-bats against left-handers,” third baseman Justin Turner said. “Not waiting guys out, getting mistakes over the plate. But we’ll get better.”

Game 3 of the series is on Wednesday night at the Ravine.  Rich Hill will get his first start of the season for the Dodgers, and he’ll be opposed by Trevor Cahill.