Dee Gordon Steals a Win for Dodgers Even After Fifth Inning Walkapalooza™

Dodgers 6 9 0

Padres  5 4 0

Final[11]

WP- Coffey (1-0)

LP- Bass (0-1)

S- Guerra (2)

HR- A.J. Ellis (1)

Dee Gordon‘s heroics would be the saving grace for the Dodgers tonight. In the first official extra inning game of the season, the Padres would fight until the bitter end. Chris Capuano would tire in the fifth inning and begin a Walkapalooza™ that continued at the hands of Jamey Wright. The Padres and Dodgers were locked in a 5-5 tie until the eleventh inning.

Dustin Moseley steps on the mound for San Diego in hopes of righting the ship and helping the Padres capture their first win of the new season. Dee Gordon starts it off with a base hit up the middle. then Gordon steals his first base of the year just beating out the throw by the catcher Hundley. Mark Ellis‘ groundout allows Dee to go to third on the first out of the inning. Gordon easily scores on a Matt Kemp sacrifice fly, and the Dodgers get a quick run on the board. Ethier makes the third out with a slow roller to short. Chris Capuano starts his season as a Dodger, and his first pitch is a swinging strike to Cameron Maybin. Maybin grounds out to third. Chris Denorfia‘s line drive is snared by Mark Ellis, and Chase Headley strikes out looking. Nice inning, Cappy!

Loney starts the second off with a line drive out to the shortstop Bartlett. Adam Kennedy goes down with a swinging strikeout. A.J. Ellis grounds out, and the Dodgers go down in order. Guzman pops out, and Hundley can’t handle Capuano’s changeup and goes down on strikes. Yonder Alonso singles to left field even though Tony Gwynn Jr. acts like he caught it. Orlando Hudson grounds out, and Dee makes a fantastic grab as the ball goes past Kennedy and makes the long throw to Loney to get the last out. Dee is sure looking good out there!

Tony Gwynn Jr. grounds out softly in the top of the third. Moseley strikes out Capuano for his second whiff of the game. Dee Gordon draws a two-out walk on four pitches. Dee Gordon promptly steals his second base of the game! With Dee Gordon flustering the battery, Mark Ellis walks with the Bison on deck. Matt Kemp’s base hit up the middle past the mound scores Gordon giving Kemp his sixth RBI on the new season. Andre Ethier comes up and quickly smacks a double into center field! Two runs score giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead! James Loney flies out to end the three-run inning. Capuano walks Bartlett on four pitches to lead off the bottom of the third inning. Moseley attempts to bunt, and it looks like he hits himself with the batted ball.  The umpires convene with Don Mattingly who comes out of the dugout seemingly annoyed, and the umps decide Moseley isn’t out. Moseley then grounds in to a force out at second. Maybin is caught looking for the second out of the inning and Cappy’s second whiff of the game. Denorfia flies out to end the third.

Adam Kennedy quickly lines out to lead off the fourth. A.J. Ellis unloads to hit a solo homerun into straightaway left field! That’s his third career homerun. 5-0 Dodgers. The second out is a shattered bat grounder by Gwynn. Cappy flies out. Capuano walks Headley to begin the bottom of the fourth, but he retires the next three batters to finish off the fourth inning.

Dee Gordon hits a double down the right field line to usher in the fifth inning for the Dodgers. Gordon takes third on Mark Ellis’ fly out. Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier both strike out for the second and third out. That would be the first time Kemp has been wrung up this season.

The bottom of the fifth starts out fine, but quickly turns very sour. Orlando strikes out in the bottom of the fifth (O’Dawg is now 0 for 8 this season at this point). Capuano begins to struggle a bit here. Bartlett gets a base hit, which is only the Padres second hit of the game. Kyle Blanks walks with still just one out. Maybin hits into a force, and Blanks is out at second. Bartlett advances to third. Denorfia walks to load the bases up with two outs. Rick Honeycutt makes a trip to the mound to chat with Cappy. Jamey Wright begins to warm in the bullpen. Walkapalooza™ continues as Capuano walks Chase Headley to bring in a run for the Padres, 5-1. Jamey Wright is called from the pen to come in to relieve him with the bases loaded and two outs. Wright gives up the fourth walk of the inning to Guzman, and another run comes home while the bases remain loaded, 5-2. Another Rick Honeycutt visit to the mound to talk to Wright this time. The wheels come off, and another walk is served up by Wright. Hundley gets the RBI, 5-3 now. Mattingly hooks Wright, and he goes to Scott Elbert to try to get the last out. Elbert’s first pitch is wild, and another run scores, 5-4 Dodgers. Then Elbert hits Alonso to load the bases up. Unbelievable. Orlando Hudson’s single brings in the run to tie the game at 5 runs apiece. Nick Hundley is out at home on the play. The nightmare inning finally comes to a close but not before the Dodger pitching completely blows the lead.

Chris Capuano pitched 4.2 innings, allowing 2 hits, 1 run, 5 walks, and 4 strikeouts on 86 pitches.

Joe Thatcher replaces Moseley for San Diego in the sixth. Dustin Moseley pitched 5 innings, allowing 5 hits, 5 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts on 79 pitches. Loney strikes out swinging, and Jerry Hairston Jr. gets a pinch hit double. San Diego brings in Brad Brach to pitch to A.J. Ellis who walks with one out. Gwynn flies out, and Juan Rivera grounds in to a force out as a pinch hitter to end the frame. In the bottom of the sixth Mike MacDougal comes in to pitch. He allows a walk, but gets out of the inning unscathed and the tie remains.

Luke Gregerson comes in to pitch the seventh inning for the Padres. Dee Gordon draw a leadoff walk, but Mark Ellis hits in to a 1-6-3 double play. Matt Kemp turns a single into a double when Guzman who was playing Kemp very deep is slow to get to the base hit through the hole. The Padres intentionally walk Ethier to get to Loney, who is 0 for 3, with two on and two out. Loney of course hits a little flare to leave the boys stranded. Matt Guerrier comes in to pitch the bottom of the seventh. Guzman gets a one-out single, but Guerrier pitches a scoreless inning. Why didn’t Donnie bring him in during that dreaded fifth inning?

Andrew Cashner is called to pitch the eighth for the Padres. Hairston grounds out on a 99 mph fastball. A.J. Ellis has a very good at bat, and he draws the walk even though Cashner is throwing major heat and hitting 100 mph on the gun. Uribe, pinch hitting, predictably strikes out swinging. He is looking awful, isn’t he? Rivera grounds out. Kenley Jansen is given the ball in the bottom of the eighth. His first appearance on Opening Day was shaky. Jansen strikes out Hudson. Kemp catches up to a slicing fly ball hit by Bartlett for the second out. Venable strikes out, that’s the Jansen we like!

Huston Street, the veteran closer, comes in to the ninth inning for the Padres. Gordon flies out to the “jury box.” Mark Ellis flies out to go 0 for 4 with a walk. Street wins the battle with Bison, and he strikes him out with the slider. We go to the bottom of the ninth still tied up, and the Dodgers look to Jansen to pitch them in to extra innings. Jansen looks much better tonight, and he sends the Pads down in order.

Well, it’s official. It’s the first extra inning game of the season. Anthony Bass pitches the tenth for San Diego. Dre pops out. Loney flies out, and he’s still looking for his first hit of the season. Hairston grounds out. Todd Coffey sprints in for the bottom of the tenth. Justin Sellers makes his season debut coming in to play third base. Coffey strikes out Hundley, but walks Alonso with two outs. Hudson makes the third out of the tenth on a high bouncer.

A.J. Ellis leads the eleventh inning off with a base hit up the middle. Justin Sellers gets the sac bunt down to move Ellis over. Juan Rivera pops up swinging at the first pitch. Dee Gordon smacks a single in to right field, and A.J. Ellis scores! 6-5 Dodgers! Gordon steals second on a pitch out dropped by Hundley. That’s three SBs for Dee tonight. Gordon has 3 hits, 2 runs, 1 RBI, 2 walks, and 3 stolen bases on the night. Javy Guerra is ready to pitch the bottom of the tenth, but there is a pause because A.J. Ellis has issues with his contact lens. Been there. Guerra walks Bartlett. Parrino bunts the tying run over to second. Guerra strikes out Maybin on a 3-2 check swing. Denorfia grounds out softly for the last out, and the Dodgers win! They are now undefeated and 3-0 to start the season. They win their first series of the year. What a game, I’m exhausted!

Tomorrow afternoon the series finale will be at 1:10 pm on Prime Ticket. Aaron Harang will pitch on this Easter Sunday against the lefty Clayton Richard for the Padres.

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