En route to completing a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies and undefeated homestand, the Los Angeles Dodgers had several moments of frustration with the strike zone. The umpiring crew remained with them for a matchup against the San Diego Padres, and more complaints arose.
Like at Dodger Stadium, both teams were upset with balls and strikes. At best, the strike zone could be described as generous. More of an issue, however, was the inconsistency within each game.
“Honestly, I just don’t really care to talk about it,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the Padres thwarted their attempt to sweep the weekend set. “I think it was consistent for both sides, however you want to take that. We still had opportunities to win a series.”
Because of how inconsistent balls and strikes were called, it can be reasoned the Dodgers nor Padres gained much of an advantage. Furthermore, the biggest dispute came on a catcher’s interference call that prompted Clayton Kershaw to exchange words with Jurickson Profar.
Chris Taylor, who hit a home run to give the Dodgers an early lead against Blake Snell, declined to share his evaluation of the strike zone from the weekend series. “I don’t know,” he said with a laugh. “Yeah. No comment.”
Taylor credits Padres pitching for quieting Dodgers
After Taylor’s home run the Dodgers went a combined 1-for-25 with 13 strikeouts. They mustered only two hits against Snell, who had seven strikeouts over five innings. Each of the Padres relief pitchers who entered the game had at least one punchout.
“I thought they made some tough pitches, a few calls that could’ve gone either way,” Taylor said. “They got some good arms. Snell did a good job. He started mixing in the changeup more and really had that pitch working.
“And then they brought in some of their relievers and they were all throwing power breaking stuff. They executed well. We weren’t able to string a few good at-bats together late to do what we needed to.”
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