The Los Angeles Dodgers lost 7-2 to the San Diego Padres, as five errors doomed the Dodgers who had to scramble from a surprising announcement this morning. Chad Billingsly was slated to pitch today's game, but was scratched with elbow soreness and left handed Chris Capuano had to start in his place. Juan Uribe started his first game at shortstop since May, and was one of the players to commit an error.
The Dodgers struck first, on an Andre Ethier single in the first inning to drive in Tony Gwynn from second. Gwynn started leadoff today and his infield single here was his only hit of the game. He subsequently stole second base, but that proved irrelevant when Mark Ellis walked from the two hole. With Matt Kemp sitting this game out, Bobby Abreu and James Loney failed to move any runners after Ethier's RBI.
The Padres found what proved to be the winning run in the top of the seventh inning. After two fly outs to begin the inning, the potential third out of the inning was thrown away by Jerry Hairston playing third base. A single by Everth Cabrera and a walk issued to John Baker loaded the bases, but once again the potential third out could not be recorded. Jerry Hairston threw another ball away, allowing two runs to score. This caused Chris Capuano to be pulled from the game. The Padres were able to get one more unearned run to effectively seal up the game.
In fact, the Padres only scored one earned run the entire game, off reliever Josh Lindblom in the 8th inning. The Dodger defense with the two throwing errors by Hairston, one by Uribe, one by Mark Ellis, and a Jamey Wright fielding error cost the Dodgers the game and the series.
Nathan Eovaldi will pitch tomorrow's game with the Billingsly scratch moving every pitcher up one game. Tuesday's started is yet to be determined. An MRI is scheduled for Billlingsly's elbow.
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