Dodgers Finish Padres Sweep in Scoreless Fashion

The San Diego Padres and Manager Andy Green are still looking for their first run of the 2016 season. Things started off badly again for the Padres Wednesday night and though Andrew Cashner was able to right the ship after the first inning, the damage that mattered had already been done. The Padres fall to 0-3 and the Dodgers improve to 3-0 with Kenta Maeda winning his Major League debut after pitching 6 IP allowing 0 runs and striking out 4 Padres in the Dodgers 7-0 victory Wednesday night.

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After Chase Utley led off with a triple in the first, Cashner calmed down to retire Corey Seager before Justin Turner singled home Utley. Yasiel Puig was retired after an Adrian Gonzalez walk and Cashner was presented with the opportunity to close things out with only the one run. Yet Carl Crawford doubled home a run before Joc Pederson singled home two more runs.

The Dodgers didn’t score again until Maeda – in his second Major League at-bat – homered to make it 5-0 Dodgers. Who needs Zack Greinke as your top hitting pitcher right? Jon Jay made a fine defensive play in center field in the inning and the Dodgers were done scoring off of Cashner, who finished making it through 4 innings with 6 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, and striking out 5.

Carlos Villaneuva logged 3 innings of mop-up relief and allowed a home run to Yasiel Puig, who is looking completely revitalized this year after a down year in 2015.

Matt Kemp did manage to become the first Padre this season to collect two hits in a game, but that was about the end of it on that side. Ryan Buchter pitched another solid inning of relief with two strikeouts while Luis Perdomo struggled in his second appearance, allowing a run on two hits. He has not been fooling any of the Dodgers this week and with the Padres headed to Colorado this weekend it is not the time to pad your pitching statistics.

Next: Padres Offense Still Lost

For the offense however heading to Coors Field might be just what they need to jumpstart an offense that helped the Dodgers set a record for consecutive scoreless innings to start the season and the Padres who now have 27 innings to start the year without a run. It is just 3 games. It is the first week of April, and the Padres will of course score runs again. The Padres scored 11 hits in the three games while the Dodgers scored 25 runs.

For the Dodgers though, their big two did exactly what they were supposed to do, Maeda stepped up as they hoped he would, and the Padres starting pitching did not do what it was supposed to do. It’s best if the fans and the Padres simply turn the page on this first series and set about winning the upcoming series on streaking Colorado.