Dodgers waste Shohei Ohtani’s record-tying homer in loss to Padres

LOS ANGELES — Shohei Ohtani let the first pitch he saw from San Diego Padres right-hander Michael King sail past him for a ball in the first inning Friday night at Dodger Stadium. Ohtani then slammed the next one into the seats beyond the left-center field fence for a solo home run.

It was the 175th homer of Ohtani’s career, tying him with Hideki Matsui for the most by a Japanese-born player in Major League Baseball history. It also was his fourth since leaving the Angels for the Dodgers and signing a mammoth 10-year, $700-million contract during the offseason.

It would have been an added bonus if it was a prelude to a hard-hitting Dodgers’ victory, but it wasn’t to be as the Padres stormed back to win 8-7 on Jackson Merrill’s RBI single off reliever Alex Vesia with two outs in the 11th inning. Padres closer Robert Saurez then blanked the Dodgers in the 11th for the win.

In addition to homering, Ohtani doubled twice and was retired twice on flies to center field as he extended his hitting streak to eight consecutive games. He is 16 for 35 with four homers, seven doubles and six RBIs during his streak. His 15 extra base hits in 16 games to start 2024 are the most in Dodgers history.

“I’m happy personally,” Ohtani said through a translator of tying Matsui. “It’s an honor to be on the same stage as him. Obviously, it’s a big deal for Japanese baseball, as well. I’m looking forward to the next one. I knew about it (the mark), but I’m really just focused on the next one.”

The Dodgers built a 7-3 lead over the Padres, by the end of the third inning, with all of their runs coming on homers. The Padres played video game baseball for a while, but couldn’t keep pace against Dodgers’ starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who atoned for a clunker of an MLB debut March 21 against San Diego.

As a cool, breezy afternoon turned into a cool, breezy evening, it didn’t seem the conditions were ideal for a Home Run Derby. But in this era of the game, all things seem possible and so it was that the ball rocketed to the outer reaches of Dodger Stadium right from the first inning Friday.

Dodgers fan favorite Manny Machado delivered a two-run homer off Yamamoto in the first inning to give San Diego a 2-0 lead that would not last. Yamamoto had lasted only one inning, giving up five runs on four hits against the Padres in Seoul, South Korea, a truly forgettable start to his MLB career.

There would be no repeat Friday.

Yamamoto gave up three runs and four hits with six strikeouts and one walk in five innings before Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced him with Daniel Hudson to start the sixth. Yamamoto threw 91 pitches, including 60 for strikes, mixing a fastball in the 90-mph range with curves and changeups in the 70s.

“He really settled in nicely,” Roberts said of Yamamoto, who is 1-1 with two no-decisions in four starts. “It was just one of those things where his pitch count was up and I just couldn’t run him out there for the sixth. He did a nice job of leaving the game with the lead and settling in nicely.”

The Dodgers bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, though.

Jake Cronenworth homered in the sixth off reliever Daniel Hudson to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 7-4. Xander Bogaerts’ run-scoring groundout off Ryan Brasier trimmed it to 7-5 in the seventh and then Fernando Tatis Jr. slugged a two-out, two-run homer to complete San Diego’s comeback, tying it 7-7.

“Brasier tonight, I just didn’t think he was sharp, to be quite frank,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers failed to counter in the later innings and the Padres won it in the 11th against Vesia (0-2) on Merrill’s sharply-hit single that scored Jurickson Profar from second base. They went down in order in their half of the inning against Suarez (1-0), with Betts sending a flyball to center to end the game.

“At times, I thought we were very good at collecting hits and keeping the line moving and it just seemed to be in the later innings we just got big,” Roberts said. “We expanded the (strike)zone and our swings got bigger when all you need is a base hit or a controlled strikezone and we didn’t do a good job of it. We caught a lead, but as they found their way back in(to the game), we could have done a better job of finishing them off.”