Roberto Hernandez turned in another stinker in his shortest start since joining the Dodgers, giving the Padres a 6-3 victory on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, snapping a four-game winning streak for Los Angeles.
The loss, coupled with a 5-1 victory by San Francisco, dropped the Dodgers' lead in the National League West to 2½ games.
The carnage began innocently enough with two outs in the second inning when a grounder by Rymer Liriano for whatever reason went under the glove of shortstop Hanley Ramirez. Alexi Amarista then singled, followed by a double by pitcher Andrew Cashner, who advanced to third on another error by Ramirez, not catching a relay throw from center field.
Somebody named Cory Spangenberg singled home Cashner, giving San Diego a 3-0 lead. Sure the inning should have been over with no damage, and all three runs during the frame were unearned, but that doesn't exonerate Hernandez, who still needed to make pitches. Giving up a two-run double to the opposing pitcher is not a way to stick around in a game.
San Diego continued their assault on Hernandez in the third inning with a walk and a two-run home run by Jedd Gyorko. Hernandez was done after three innings, and in his last four starts has allowed 17 runs in 18⅓ innings.
Down 5-0 early, the rest of the game was filled with a few trivial nuggets:
- Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run home run to right field in the sixth inning for the Dodgers' only runs. His 23rd home run of the season was his fourth home run in four games.
- Matt Kemp followed with a double, extending his hitting streak to 15 games. But one batter later Kemp was erased when he was hit by Carl Crawford's ground ball.
- Yimi Garcia pitched two innings of scoreless relief in the fourth and fifth frames.
- Kevin Correia, in his first appearance in a week, pitched two scoreless innings of his own in relief.
- A.J. Ellis entered the game 4-for-43 (.093) against the Padres this season, including 1 for his last 31, but was 1-for-3 on Tuesday.
- The Dodgers did manage to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Kevin Quackenbush struck out Dee Gordon and got Ramirez to fly out to end the game.
Up next
The Dodgers and Padres meet for the final time in 2014 on Wednesday night, with Dan Haren starting for Los Angeles and Ian Kennedy for San Diego.
Tuesday particulars
Home runs: Adrian Gonzalez (23); Jedd Gyorko (10)
WP - Andrew Cashner (3-7): 7 IP, 9 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
LP - Roberto Hernandez (8-11): 3 IP, 5 hits, 5 runs (2 earned), 1 walk, 3 strikeouts