Yoshinobu Yamamoto was chased after one inning of a nightmarish major league debut and the San Diego Padres outlasted the Dodgers 15-11 on Thursday night after Los Angeles fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter following allegations of illegal gambling.
Mookie Betts had four hits and six RBIs for the Dodgers, including the first home run of the major league season.
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Jake Cronenworth tied a career high with four hits and had four RBIs for San Diego, who gained a split in the opening two-games series, Major League Baseball’s first games in South Korea. After the Dodgers rebounded from a 9-2 deficit and closed to 12-11, Manny Machado hit a three-run homer in the ninth off JP Feyereisen.
Ohtani, the biggest star in baseball, hit three deep flyouts on a 1-for-5 night and was 3 for 10 with one RBI in the series. Interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was let go from the team on Wednesday after reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker.
Yamamoto came into the game with high expectations: he signed a $325m, 12-year contract, a record amount for a pitcher. San Diego batted around against the two-time Pacific League MVP, and he left with a 45.00 ERA, allowing five runs, four hits, one walk, a hit batter and a wild pitch.
Cronenworth’s two-run triple, Ha-Seong Kim’s sacrifice fly, Campusano’s RBI double and Tyler Wade’s run-scoring single built a 5-1 lead. Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run single in a four-run third off Michael Grove.
Michael King won in his Padres debut after his acquisition in the trade that sent Juan Soto to the New York Yankees.
In the second season of the pitch clock, the game took 3 hours, 42 minutes, a day after the opener lasted 3:05. Bogaerts struck out for the final out in the eighth when a pitch clock-violation was called by plate umpire Andy Fletcher with a 1-2 count.
