The Los Angeles Dodgers escaped Sunday’s 17-inning marathon game with a 9-5 victory to avoid being swept by the San Diego Padres. It lasted five hours and 47 minutes, and currently stands as the longest game in Major League Baseball this season in terms of innings played.
Easily forgotten considering the Dodgers called on eight relievers, it was Kenta Maeda who took the mound for his ninth start this season. The Japanese native was coming off four consecutive subpar outings, which were a far cry from his early success.
However, Maeda was sharp against the Padres. He carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, with the Padres’ lone baserunner to that point coming on a hit by pitch — one that grazed Brett Wallace’s jersey.
Prior to the Padres taking a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth, there was a lengthy delay in the top half of the inning. Joc Pederson, who finished the game 2-for-7, attempted to drop down a bunt single.
Pederson fouled Colin Rea’s pitch off, with it taking a bounce behind the plate and ricocheting to strike home plate umpire David Rackley in the groin. Rackley remained down for a few minutes, was checked on by the Padres training staff, and eventually walked off the field.
He was replaced by second base umpire Alfonso Marquez, who needed to put on the appropriate equipment. Rea went on to throw a scoreless inning. Meanwhile, Melvin Upton Jr. led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, ending Maeda’s no-hit bid.
Maeda gave up a pair of singles, issued a walk, and with the bases loaded, Wil Myers hit a three-run triple. Myers’ triple was somewhat of a bad break for Maeda, as Puig came up just short of making a diving catch on the shallow fly ball to right.
The right-hander’s day came to an end after the fifth. A.J. Ellis believes the delay negatively affected Maeda, who in Ellis’ opinion, otherwise pitched well, via Ken Gurnick and Jay Paris of MLB.com:
“This is going to sound like a really bad excuse,” said catcher A.J. Ellis, “but I think the long delay with the umpire getting knocked out of the game really threw him out of his rhythm. He was throwing the ball as good as I’ve seen since early in the year. Fastball great life, slider great location, changeup had depth. When he went out for the fifth, just not quite as sharp.”
True to what Maeda said would be the case after his previous outing, he utilized his fastball with more frequency, as opposed to being overly reliant on the slider. While the four runs allowed is a bit of a black eye, Maeda did collect five strikeouts.
Overall this season, he’s 3-3 with a 3.29 ERA, 3.51 FIP and 1.08 WHIP, with 15 walks and 48 strikeouts over 52 innings pitched.
