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By Liz Alper
Photo: Jabari Blash takes in his first Opening Day. From San Diego Padres on Twitter.
April 4, 2016 (San Diego) - The grass was mowed. Fans filled the seats. Opening Day had arrived in San Diego. And it was a big one; the NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers came to town and they brought their ace, Clayton Kershaw, to face off against the Padres’ Tyson Ross.
The roaring Opening Day crowd at Petco Park was soon roaring with despair in the top of the first when the Dodgers secured back-to-back doubles from Chase Utley and Corey Seager. Seager’s double drove in Utley to make the score 1-0 Dodgers. San Diego native Adrian Gonzalez looped a single into center to drive in Seager and make the score 2-0.
In the third, Gonzalez drove in another run to make the score 3-0 LA. Gonzalez starts the season with a pair of RBIs.
It was a mostly quiet ballgame until the sixth, when Joc Pedersen doubled and drove in a run to make the score 4-0. A.J. Ellis singled and drove in two more runs and it was 6-0 Dodgers. Utley added one more run and made it 7-0. Seager hit a sac fly on which Kershaw scored to make the score 8-0.
In the seventh, Utley struck again for a two-run single to make the score 11-0 Dodgers. Gonzalez singled in the eighth to give the Dodgers one more run. 12-0. Yasiel Puig tripled and added three more runs to the bloodbath. 14-0. Ellis grounded out to score Trayce Thompson and the Dodgers led 15-0.
The Padres suffered an Opening Day meltdown, but they’ll give it another go tomorrow, with James Shields taking the mound.
Comments
Some Padres History
My dad took me to a game at Lane Field that was abandoned after the 1957 PCL season. We went to games at Westgate Park too. When the Padres started playing at Jack Murphy Stadium I left work early to go to a one o'clock game and driving on Texas Street I saw an elderly man with a Padres hat. I stopped to offer him a ride and he was Whitey Weitelman!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitey_Wietelmann