Glasnow twirls another gem, adds to MLB-leading K total

SAN DIEGO -- With every strikeout, Tyler Glasnow let out a roar into his glove. After every inning-ending out, the intensity around Glasnow only heightened. The right-hander knew he was in the middle of one of the best pitchers’ duels of the season.

Glasnow did all he could throughout the night. He struck out 10 and allowed just one run on one hit over seven dominant innings. On the other side, however, Padres right-hander Michael King was even better, striking out 11 over seven shutout innings.

In the end, Glasnow and the Dodgers fell just short, losing the series opener to the Padres, 2-1, on Friday at Petco Park, snapping their season-high seven-game winning streak.

“I don’t talk about playoff atmosphere too often in the regular season,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “But today was. It felt like that. I think Michael King threw his best game, certainly, of the year. I can’t imagine him throwing a better game ever. … We just didn’t have an answer.”

From the start of the game, it was evident that both starters had their best stuff. King struck out four of the first five batters he faced, including a pair looking. King became the first opposing starter to record 11 or more strikeouts against the Dodgers since Shohei Ohtani struck out 12 last June as a member of the Angels.

“Some days as a position player, you don’t want to give any credit to a pitcher, but tonight you have to give it to him,” said Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who drove in the only run of the night with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. “He had sinkers running back on the inside part, he had the four-seamer in there, too, and he was throwing front-door changeups and playing that off inside. Just a well pitched ballgame on both sides.”

Freeman summarized it perfectly. On the Dodgers side, Glasnow was just as brilliant outside of one Luis Campusano swing in the third inning. After retiring the first seven batters he faced and striking out five of them, Glasnow didn’t get a four-seamer high enough against the Padres’ catcher, who sent it over the wall for a solo homer.

“That was a pretty good pitch,” said Glasnow. “Fastball up, 97 with good carry. I just tip my cap. It was a good swing.”

With how dominant Glasnow looked on Friday, it was going to require a great swing. The Dodgers’ right-hander has been as good as advertised in the early going of the season for Los Angeles.

In just about every way, Glasnow is looking like the ace the Dodgers desperately lacked toward the end of last season. Over his last four starts, Glasnow has allowed just four runs over 28 innings. In that span, he has recorded 10 strikeouts three times, including Friday, and leads the Majors with 73 punchouts.

Glasnow and King became the third pair of pitchers to each have 10 or more strikeouts and allow two or fewer hits in the game since at least 1901. They join Brandon Woodruff (7 IP) and Max Scherzer (6 IP) on May 20, 2021 and Corbin Burnes (6 1/3 IP) and José Berríos (6 IP) on April 2, 2021.

“It’s been a nice rhythm the last few I’ve strung along together,” Glasnow said. “It’s felt really consistent from a few starts ago.”

But as good as both starters were, the game was ultimately decided by the bullpen. With the Dodgers being thin in the backend of the bullpen due to injury, Roberts turned to Michael Grove in the ninth with the game tied at one.

Grove immediately served a leadoff double to Campusano, but bounced back to strike out Ha-Seong Kim for the first out. Roberts then said he contemplated walking Luis Arraez to get to Fernando Tatis Jr. Lefties are hitting .130 off Grove this season, while righties came into Friday’s game at a .291 clip. Because of that, the Dodgers decided to attack Arraez, but it didn’t pan out as the designated hitter lined the first pitch he saw into center field to end the game.

“When you have three leverage guys not participating you’re trying to give guys opportunities,” Roberts said. “You’ve got to continue to trust those guys, keep running them out there and each time they’re getting more experience.”