On Split Squad Sunday, some of the Padres hit the road to take on the Dodgers in Glendale. For the first time, this Spring, the game didn't end in a San Diego loss.
Yonder Alonso hit a two-out single in the 1st, but a strikeout by Xavier Nadyended the inning. Then Robbie Erlin took the mound in the bottom of the inning. He gave up a single to Andre Ethier, but it amounted to nothing. Erlin ran into some trouble in the 2nd inning. After walking Joc Pederson and then giving up a single to Tim Federowicz to put runners at the corners, the Dodgers put a run across the board with a forceout by Alex Guerrero, though Jace Peterson made a nice attempt to double off Federowicz. That was the only run given up by Erlin in his two innings of work.
Jesse Hahn, whom the Padres acquired along with Alex Torres in the seven-player trade with the Rays, came in to make his Padres debut and delivered two fantastic innings on the mound in relief, giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one batter (Adrian Gonzalez to end the 3rd).
In Glendale: Jesse Hahn tosses two impressive scoreless frames w/ a hit, walk and K of Adrian Gonzalez. LA 1, SD 0, top 5. #PadresST
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 2, 2014The 4th was uneventful in terms of scoring, but came with what could be awful news for the Padres. Cameron Maybin made this diving catch in the bottom of the 4th and was then taken out of the game. After the dive, he was seen rubbing his shoulder and he looked to be in pain, then the trainer came to retrieve him from the field and take him into the clubhouse.
Obviously we're all hoping this isn't anything serious. The Padres have said that Maybin was to be examined and they would give us an update later today.
The Dodgers scored again in the 5th on a sac fly by Yasiel Puig off Leonel Campos. But the Friars finally got on the board in the top of the 6th. Stephen Fife issued a walk to Jace Peterson to lead off the inning. Peterson reached second on a groundout by Rico Noel and then a single by Alexi Amarista brought him home to cut the lead in half. Then Patrick Schuster came in to pitch and got through the bottom of the inning with no damage done.
The Dodgers made it a two-run game again on the bottom of the 7th when Chone Figgins singled and then came home on a Dee Gordon triple off Kevin Quackenbush. But the Padres closed the gap in the 8th on a Rico Noel RBI double, followed by a Rocky Gale RBI single.
Tommy Medica led off the 9th with a double and later Peterson got a two-out walk, but both runners were left on base. Blaine Boyer, who had also pitched the 8th inning for San Diego, came out of the 9th unscathed, leaving the Padres and Dodgers tied at 3.
In summary:
The good news: The Padres got their first non-loss of the Spring.
The bad news: It was a tie with the Dodgers.
The potentially gutwrenching news: Maybin could be hurt.
This game will be played on MLB Network tonight at midnight, so come back to the game thread in five and a half hours and let's pretend it's live.