Baseball is finally back. Major League Baseball is finally back and doing so in South Korea, where 108-seam ball is almost a religion.
To open the 2024 season with two games outside of US soil to increasingly export baseball, the league has chosen two teams, both Californian, Shohei Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers and Manny Machado’s San Diego Padres.
Taking place at the imposing Sky Dome in Seoul, game 1 sees Tyler Glasnow, who arrived in LA in the winter from the Tampa Bay Rays, and Yu Darvish, a Japanese starter in his fourth season in San Diego, face off on the mound.
In the third inning, Xander Bogaerts homered the first run of the 2024 season for the Padres, who immediately bounced back from Jason Heyward’s tying sacrifice fly in the next inning. The Padres took the lead again on Machado’s run after a double play on a grounder hit by Luis Campusano. Both Glasnow and Darvish limit opposing attacks and both give way to relief at 2-1 for San Diego.
However, the Padres were betrayed by their bullpen and in the eighth inning they were subjected to the music of a perfect Los Angeles orchestra that scored four points in a row, thanks to hits from Mookie Betts and Ohtani. San Diego completely freezes in attack and the Dodgers’ closer Evan Phillips gets his first save of the season: 5-2 Los Angeles in game 1 and the next day.
For the second game Dave Roberts lines up on the mound Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed a contract worth 325 million in 12 years in free agency, after seven seasons in the NPB, the Japanese professional baseball league, in which he won three consecutive triple crowns (! ). However, the debut of the Japanese starter turns out to be a nightmare: in the first inning he suffers 5 points from the Padres’ attack, led by Jake Cronenworth and is immediately replaced.
Game 2 ignites immediately and never goes out: even Joe Musgrove, an exceptional starter from San Diego, struggles against the Dodgers’ attack which scores two points in the second inning with Will Smith and the usual Ohtani. But the Padres are unstoppable even against LA’s relief and score another four points in the third half with Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr., who finally shows signs of life after a disastrous Game 1.
But the Dodgers didn’t let go: in the bottom of the same inning James Outman, Hayward and Betts hit three hits that brought home four points for 9-6. Everything has to be done again for San Diego who scores the tenth point thanks to the usual Cronenworth, but who still see themselves brought closer by LA after Mookie Betts’ first home run of the 2024 season to make it 10-8. An extraordinary match that reminds us once again how much we have missed this wonderful sport.
In the seventh inning a double by Campusano and an error by one Max Muncy strangely inaccurate on a bounce hit by Josè Azocar they allow the Padres to recover the two points lost with Betts’ home run, but in the bottom part a single by Smith nibbles another point for the Padres: 12-9.
We enter the eighth inning with the usual protagonist: Betts still hits deep, but not enough to end up in the stands like two rounds before, but two points still enter, 12-11 for San Diego. A game that continues to seem infinite but which is closed by the three-run home run of the man who is the worst on his team at that moment, Manny Machado.
The match ends after more than four hours with the final score of 15-11 for the San Diego Padres, with MVP Jake Cronenworth who finished with 4 out of 4 and 4 runs batted in at home.
1-1 and the ball in the center one might say in other contexts, but in reality it is the record of both teams who in these two days in Korea gave the show that baseball lovers had been waiting for since the last World Series in November.
The season will start with all the franchises next Thursday 28 March with Opening Day 2024 with the Texas Rangers reigning champions and ready to defend the title, even if no franchise has managed it for 24 years.
Enjoy the Show!!!
Matteo, Bear for friends, therefore for everyone. I love America’s favorite pastime: baseball. Lifelong Boston Red Sox fan, but first and foremost a Diamond fan. In love with Pedro Martinez’s fastball, Ken Griffey Jr.’s swing and David Ortiz’s home runs. Secret dream: watching a game from the Green Monster at Fenway Park. On Instagram I talk about baseball with the page @mediabattuta
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2024-03-21 22:13:40
#Padres #Dodgers #put #show #Play.it #USA
