Padres 1, Dodgers 11: Making a Mountain out of Rich Hill

A lot of Padres fans wonder why Clayton Richard is still on this team. Tonight only served to exacerbate that feeling.

Richard, going this weekend by the nickname "Clay Clay," didn't make it out of the fourth inning in the series opener against the Dodgers. He gave up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits through 3 2/3 frames, though he only walked two batters which I suppose means it could have been worse. Anyway, here's a video of Clay Clay looking dejected as he walks off the mound.

Seemingly in solidarity with their starting pitcher's struggles on the mound, the Padres offense kept things ugly at the plate. Dodgers starter Rich Hill had a perfect game going through the four innings. Hunter Renfroe finally broke that up with a double to lead off the 5th, as you can most definitely see for yourself this other great FSSD tweet:

The Dodgers continued to score off Padres pitching. Two runs off Miguel Diaz and another two runs off Phil Maton brought them up to an 11-0 lead through seven innings.

We finally got some life in the 8th inning, when Manuel Margot led off with a single and then scored two batters later on a Freddy Galvis double. No sir, the Padres would not be shut out tonight. And then Robert Stock came in and pitched a scoreless bottom of the inning. If the Padres could just put up a 10-spot in the 9th we'd have a whole new ballgame!

Instead, they went down in order to seal it for Los Angeles.

We'll get 'em tomorrow. KTF.