The San Diego Padres are 0-1 to begin the 2024 regular season. The Padres had chances to beat the Dodgers in a 5-2 loss in Seoul, South Kore on Wednesday, but the ball didn't bounce their way — literally and figuratively.
The Friars had chances to get off the field when needed but couldn't capitalize for one reason or another. Although they were in the game until the eighth inning, they needed seven relief pitchers to get through nine innings after an early exit by starter Yu Darvish.
Darvish sometimes struggled with his command, resulting in his high pitch count in the fourth inning. Ultimately, he was taken out of the game after throwing 72 pitches in 3.2 innings. That wasn't how Darvish, the team, and manager Mike Shildt wanted to start the season.
After the loss, Shildt spoke to the media and elaborated on why he made the move when he did.
“(Darvish) battled. Got through that bases-loaded jam, goes back out, limits some damage, got to his pitch count. They threw some good at-bats on him, ran it up a little bit. And the bullpen did a nice job. Cosgrove – we were in that situation where in the fourth we were in the bullpen. We used our matchups, used our lefties.”
This now leaves the Friars in a tricky dilemma for Thursday's game. Shildt used seven pitchers outside of Darvish on Wednesday, and that could leave him in a tough position for their next game with Padres right-handed ace Joe Musgrove on the mound next.
“It’s a challenge. We’ve got Joe (Musgrove) and (Michael) King who can pitch as well. We’ve got guys who we think can come back based on pitch count. We’ve got some guys who didn’t pitch today — (Woo-Suk) Go and (Robert) Suarez — so we’ll come back ready to go.”
Shildt is confident in his relievers. It'll be interesting to see how the manager navigates Game 2 in Seoul. It will all depend on how Musgrove performs in his first outing of the regular season.
Tune in at 3 a.m. Pacific Time to find out.
More must-reads: