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“PADRES OPENING DAY-MORE OF THE SAME”
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Observations from what I saw at 3am as the Padres opened the season with the Dodgers.

SAME OLD-SAME OLD…Another game with LA-same result, a loss.  It just never seems to end, this time a (5-2) setback on opening day.

BIG BATS-NO BATS…Flashback..heart of Padres order went (0-14)..Tatis-Machado-Cronenworth-Kim-Merrill.

BROKEN GLOVE..Keeping score at home the Dodgers scored a run on a hot 1-hopper that went thru the webbing of Jake Cronenworth’s glove, breaking the webbing triggering the 8th inning rally.

YU NOT YOU..Darvish had trouble locating his pitches for much of the early innings.  He labored just beyond the 3rd inning, finished with 107-pitches, just not dazzling.

DO NOT PASS GO…It was not Monoply, but the Padres pitchers issued all of 9 bases on balls.  If LA had a few more timely hits the game would have been more lopsided.

NOT PRESEASON ANYMORE…Jhony Brito-Adrian Morejon had been strong in the Cactus League, but got banged around in the 8th and 9th innings..giving up a combined 4-runs.

SHOWTIME…Ohtani was on camera 56-times in the 9 innings..in the field, at the plate, in the dugout.  He responded with two blistering hits. two weak swings in the field, and a long foul ball home run down the line.  Two observations, what a powerful-quick swing.  Can he fly down the basepaths.

TYLER WADE…A bad throwing error, then a diving ground ball he turned into a big defensive play

PADRES BATS…This makes you remember last year, bases loaded, no outs, and they score just 1-run.

MOOKIE CAN BALL…Betts handled a couple of hot shots and made big throws from the hole in short in his debut at that position.

HOLD YOUR BREATH…Gavin Lux nearly threw away an early inning ground ball but Freddie Freeman recovered it quickly…this might be an adventure watching him.

DAVE ROBERTS SNEER…All the talk about the LA defense in the infield, a bad sneer on Roberts face when Max Muncie and Glasnow failed to communicate on a bunt that wound up being a throwing error that loaded the bases.  Could have been a messy inning, but LA escaped big damage.

YUKI MATSUI..ignored all week in the Japanese storylines about the game, the Padres reliever showed strong stuff, low in the strike zone pitches, in an efficient 1-2-3 inning.

SUK GOO..The Korean reliever did not make the 31-man travel squad to Seoul…he was optioned to AAA-El Paso the night the Padres left for Seoul.  He was behind in pitching and not ready.

DE LOS SANTOS…The ex Cleveland Guardian showed electric stuff in his one inning of work, with ball movement and a strange delivery.

PITCHING CLOCK…Wandy Peralta was cited for 2-violations of the pitching clock, in fact the Padres hurler had 5-clock violations on opening day..must be some type of record

SNEAK PREVIEW…They ran out almost the entire bullpen, seven relievers in all and most did okay.

BREAKING GLASS…Tyler Glasnow’s debut, pretty impressive…5-innings..2-runs in one bad inning, and was clocked at 97mph.

SKYDOME…Their state of the art park seats only 17,000 which was surprising to me.

HOME TOWN HERO…Cool shot of fans in a theatre in Shohei’s home town watching the game on satellite feed.

JERSEYS..No Peter Seidler ‘love ‘ patch on the opening day of the Padres jerseys, replaced by a corporate sponsor ad and the Seoul Series logo.

MOMENT OF SILENCE…In reverence to the late Padres owner, a nice scoreboard salute just before the first pitch..

MISSING IN ACTION…The US-National Anthem but I thought they would salute the South Korean anthem too, but they did not.

THE FANS IN THE STANDS…Now it was a really different atmosphere during the game.  Cheerleaders on the top of the dugout?  Please.  Fans sat on their hands most of the night except for a big hit.  Enough with the continued banging of the drums and fans singing during the innings. Surely not like the crowds for Dodgers-Padres game at Petco.  No beat LA-beat LA…Heard Ha-Seong Kim chant just once.  Fans were polite as if they were at a concert.  Wouldn’t find that at Yankees Stadium or Philadelphia or Boston.

GAME GEAR…Hardly saw any Padres fans wearing their jerseys.  As expected every type of Dodgers gear, every type of Ohtani clothing was in full view all game long.

GOOD BROADCAST RUINED…Really disappointed in Karl Ravch-Eduardo Perez broadcast…Talked and talked like they were doing a talk show during the first five innings of so.  Let the game breathe will you.  The use of the Korean TV reporter on the sideline was okay., but the content was weak.  Think ESPN really missed a chance to do creative things, dugout interviews, fans in the stands, interviewing players’ families.  A John Smoltz-Buster Olney touch would have added alot.  Trash the features on Korean food-why is that important on opening day?  The bullpen shots, downstairs, off the field, was unique.  Show me the clubhouse too.  Show me a historical segment of the city of Seoul.  Tell me about North Korea-South Korea and that atmosphere.  Could have done more….And with Commissioner Rob Manfred in the booth, why all the softball questions for his half of the inning.  Do a real interview please.

SCANDAL CITY…The AP reported late after the game the Dodgers terminated Ohtani’s personal aide-interpreter Ipp Mizuhara because of his friendships with gamblers and allegation Mizuhara was stealing money from Ohtani during his years with the Angels.  Reports are investigators discovered (4.5M) in money transferred from Ohtani accounts to Mizuhara’s accounts to pay off gambling debts in Southern California and Japan.  Wow.

MISSING…It was opening day, and here I was clamoring for a Beer and a Dog..but it was 3am in my house, so I didn’t get that either.

Only counts as one game, one loss, so we see what Thursday brings us.

Yeah it felt like so many other Dodgers-Padres games, a loss.  At least it wasn’t an 8-run first inning like the opening day of Spring Training this year.  At least it wasn’t a 15-0 sweep on opening day years back with Andy Green’s debut.

Opening day.  Wasn’t a win.  Could have been better game.

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