Game 14, 2021

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Dodgers at Padres, 7:10 PM PDT, Bally Sports San Diego, MLBN (out-of-market only), SPNLA

The visiting Dodgers send Walker Buehler (1-0, 1.50 ERA) out for his third start of the year. He’s gone six innings in each of his first two, getting no decision against the Rockies and beating the Nationals. He’ll face the Padres’ rookie LHP Ryan Weathers (1-0, 1.50 ERA), who’ll be making his first career start.

Today in Dodgers’ history:

  • 1928 Braves’ pitcher Charlie Robertson has his glove removed from the game by umpire Charley Moran after the Brooklyn Robins (Dodgers) complain the ball is acting strangely. The Boston hurler still manages to win, 3-2.
  • 1946 LOCAL NEWSPAPER AD — “An Apology to Braves Fans – The management will reimburse any of its patrons for any expense to which they might have been put for necessary cleansing of clothing as a result of paint damage.” As the result of the newly painted grandstand seats having not yet completely dried, about 5,000 fans attending the Boston’s home opener against the Dodgers left Braves Field with green paint covering much of their clothing. The team took out newspaper ads to apologize to the affected patrons, agreeing to reimburse any expense caused by the mishap, an offer that will cost the team $6,000, after it generates nearly 13,000 claims, including some from as far away as California and Nebraska.
  • 1964 Shea Stadium is christened with Holy Water from the Gowanus Canal, which passes near Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, the Dodgers’ old home, and Holy Water from the Harlem River at the location where it flows past the Polo Grounds, the once longtime ballpark of the Giants and the Mets’ home for the past two seasons. The stadium’s namesake Bill Shea, the lawyer credited with bringing the National League back to New York, pours the water from two bottles, blessing the Flushing Meadows structure on the eve of its debut.
  • 1975 After making the second of his two poor starts for the Dodgers, Juan Marichal, who signed with the team as a free agent, appears in his final major league game. The 37 year-old ‘Dominican Dandy’ finishes his 16-year Hall of Fame career with more complete games (244) than the total of his victories (243).
  • 1983 Steve Garvey appears in his 1,118th straight game, breaking the National League record established by Hall of Fame outfielder Billy Williams playing for the Cubs in 1970. The Padres’ first baseman, who spent 13 seasons with the Dodgers before signing as a free agent with San Diego in the offseason, will see his consecutive game streak end at 1,207, the third-longest span in major league history at the time, due to a dislocated thumb suffered as a result of a collision at home plate during the first game of a doubleheader in 1983.
  • 1988 The Braves establish a National League record for losses at the start of a season by losing their tenth consecutive game. With a 7-4 defeat to the Dodgers, Atlanta surpasses the mark, previously owned by four teams, including the infamous 1919 Braves and the 1962 Mets.

Lineup when available.

340 thoughts on “Game 14, 2021”

  3. Well, if they tie it up we will have Betts leading off the 13th. That was sick. I know. DON’T THROW ANY DARTS AT ME, PLEASE!

  5. You mean we have to play another inning? Winnipeg Dave, will it end before sunrise in Manitoba?

  12. I honestly feel like the Dodgers can’t “lose” here. If they win the game/series, they remain in control of the Padres – just like always. If they lose, then like Obi-Wan Kenobi, they will come back stronger. Like after the Pads beat Kershaw last year.

  14. The season series between these 2 teams feels like an ESPN 30 for 30 waiting to happen.

  20. Bellinger out indefinitely with hairline fracture in his fibula, or has that been posted previously on this site?

  32. Last year Dodgers scored 5 in an extra inning game and ended up only winning by 1 I think.

  46. OhioDodger: where are you in the Buckeye State? I used to live outside of Toledo, in Sylvania.

  79. Padres trying to become the first team ever to win the well known 1 game mid April World Series.

  129. Totally off topic – but someone asked me for my fav “B list”* movie stars and I’m drawing a blank. Any names come to mind for anyone here?

    *(Not sure I – or the stars themselves – love the “B list” distinction.)

    • I would like to have seen Ryan Weathers pitch against Storm Davis, but they are a generation apart.

  163. The Dodgers can be OK without Bellinger, but based on the very early returns I think they will need an upgrade from Beaty, Rios and Raley.

    • Beaty and Ríos have decent track records for bench players. Raley’s had a couple good early moments, but nothing definitive. That was a good AB for him.

  164. 46 pitches for the Pads pitcher after 2. Amazign how well the Dodgers can run up pitch counts early on so consistently.

  168. Tatis apparently being asked to change his follow through, from one hand to two. I would imagine that could take weeks to adjust to.

  172. I’m not sure the Padre fans have ever seen a DP before. They seemed very impressed by it.

  176. The Fish have swallowed the Gnats, so Dodgers can increase their NL West lead tonight.

      • You will have to scroll through some big blank sections, but here it is …

        Sporting Green // Bruce Jenkins (San Francisco Chronicle)

        Remembering ‘Fernandomania’ four decades on, and how it changed the game

        Bruce Jenkins

        April 16, 2021

        Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day on Thursday,
        resurrecting the memory of Robinson breaking the major leagues’ color
        barrier in 1947 and offering fans an invitation to research a landmark
        of American history.

        As it happens, this is an especially relevant year for
        perspective. Let’s hope the saga of Fernando Valenzuela, and his lasting
        impact on the game, is not overshadowed.

        Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of a Tuesday night
        at Candlestick Park and an early glimpse at “Fernandomania,” one of the
        most stunning and heartwarming episodes of baseball lore. The Dodgers
        were in town, and the 20-year-old left-hander was making his second
        start of the 1981 season. He was known, but just barely. Facing the
        likes of Larry Herndon, Jack Clark, Mike Ivie, Joe Morgan and Rennie
        Stennett, Valenzuela outdueled Vida Blue in a four-hit, complete-game
        7-1 victory before a crowd of 23,790.

        It was fresh, stylish, impressive. But nobody could have anticipated what was coming.

        By the end of that season, Valenzuela had become the
        first player to win Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in the
        same season. He won his first eight starts, all but one a complete game,
        with five shutouts. He would draw massive crowds around the country,
        everyone fascinated by an ordinary-looking fellow who looked to the
        heavens before every pitch and had emerged from depths of obscurity: the
        son of poor farmers in Etchohuaquila, a small town in the state of
        Sonora, Mexico, some 370 miles south of the Arizona border.

        Just two years earlier, he had signed for $120,000 out of
        the Mexican Baseball League without a hint of fanfare. Now he was
        changing the face of baseball — starting with the Mexican American
        community surrounding Dodger Stadium and expanding to Latino interests
        worldwide.

        “Watching Fernando pitch,” broadcaster Vin Scully often said, “was a religious experience.”

        For those who remember those days, scenes of familial
        harmony stay locked in memory: Hispanic parents taking their kids to
        the ballpark, not just for the baseball experience but to let them know
        that the great Fernando was one of their own, that anything in life was
        possible. He stood just 5-foot-11 and couldn’t have been less
        threatening as a physical presence, but as the greats of the game stood
        before him in the batter’s box — Pete Rose, Dave Parker, Mike Schmidt,
        Andre Dawson, George Foster — they could not figure him out.

        It was all about the screwball, an off-speed pitch
        darting low and away to right-handed hitters and effectively the
        opposite of his curveball to lefty batters. He had learned the pitch in
        Lodi, of all places. The Dodgers had their California base in that San
        Joaquin County town in 1979, and it was taught to Valenzuela by relief
        pitcher Bobby Castillo. A changed man, suddenly retiring everyone in
        sight, Valenzuela was promoted to Double-A San Antonio in 1980 and led
        the Texas League in strikeouts before a late-season stint with the
        Dodgers.

        Hall of Fame voters tend to be especially cruel when it
        comes to short-term primes. Valenzuela’s lasted just six years, and he
        joins the likes of Don Mattingly, Will Clark and Keith Hernandez among
        players who absolutely had that Cooperstown look at their best — but
        were denied in the voting. More important, however, is what happened in
        Southern California upon Valenzuela’s arrival.

        Athletes of Mexican heritage fill the pages of soccer and
        boxing history, with shining lights in other sports, notably Joe Kapp,
        Jim Plunkett, Tom Flores, Tom Fears, Anthony Muñoz, Tony Romo and a host
        of placekickers in the NFL. There’s a long list in baseball, including
        Bobby Avila (the 1954 American League batting champion), Adrian
        Gonzalez, Nomar Garciaparra, Anthony Rendon and Eric Chavez. The great
        Ted Williams preferred to keep the information private, lest he fall
        victim to racial prejudice, but both of his maternal grandparents had
        come to the United States from Valle de Allende in Chihuahua, Mexico,
        and his mother’s maiden name was Venzor.

        For Valenzuela, whose status rose above them all,
        recognition among his people did not come easily. Chavez Ravine, where
        the Dodgers built their ballpark, had been home to a thriving Mexican
        American community for decades before an ill-fated housing project
        cleared the land and saw many residents physically removed from their
        homes by local sheriffs. There was deep resentment toward the Dodgers,
        who purchased the land in 1957, and this was a franchise without much
        interest in Latino ballplayers.

        Consider this striking contrast: The Giants filled their
        roster with Latin-born players over their first five years in San
        Francisco, including Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, the three Alou
        brothers, Manny Mota and Jose Pagan. When Valenzuela became a rotation
        regular in 1981, he was the first Latino to have that
        distinction since the Dodgers’ move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. And
        the team played 10 seasons in Los Angeles before fielding an everyday
        Latino in the field, shortstop Zoilo Versalles, in 1968.

        Valenzuela changed all that by himself. As the
        neighborhoods surrounding Chavez Ravine began their revival, so did the
        Dodgers’ reputation in those quarters. Everybody was imitating
        Valenzuela’s delivery: hands joined at the waist, then lifted high above
        his head as he glanced skyward — sometimes inspiration overrides the
        textbook — and fired away. Even today, so many years later, the Dodgers
        estimate that more than 40% of their fans are Latino.

        “I truly believe that there is no other player in
        major-league history who created more new fans than Valenzuela,” said
        Jamie Jarrin, the longtime Spanish-language radio voice of the Dodgers,
        in a 2006 interview with Dodger Magazine. “Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale,
        Joe DiMaggio, even Babe Ruth did not. Fernando turned so many people
        from Mexico, Central America and South America into fans. He created
        interest in baseball among people who did not care about baseball.”

        Bruce Jenkins is a columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: bjenkins@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Bruce_Jenkins1

        Bruce Jenkins has written for the San Francisco Chronicle since 1973 and has
        been a sports columnist since 1989. He has covered 27 World Series, 19
        Wimbledons and many other major events, including the Super Bowl, World
        Cup soccer, NBA Finals, four major golf tournaments and U.S. Open tennis
        championships.

        He graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1966 and UC Berkeley with a B.A. in journalistic studies in 1971.