Game 2: Padres 4 Dodgers 2

After an opening day victory over the Padres, the city of Los Angeles was abuzz with Dodgers fever, as many fans were suddenly beginning to make deposits for playoff tickets. However, they forgot one thing. Monday night’s game was in fact just one game. There were 161 more left, and on Tuesday night, the Dodgers and their fans fell back to earth with a 4-2 loss at the hands of the Padres.

Yes, the same Padres that many have projected them to lose 100 games this year. This is the team that the Dodgers, with their heralded offense, recorded just five hits. Yes, the game was at pitcher friendly Petco Park, but you are facing a team that tried to trade away every player on its roster making over $2 million this offseason. I think more than five hits is something that could have been managed.

Here are some thoughts from Tuesday night’s disaster:

• You are going to have trouble if you depend on Randy Wolf as your number two starter. The southpaw gave up 4 earned runs in just 5 1/3 innings of work. He was effective at times, 1 earned run through five innings, but you’re going to have problems with a 33 year-old starter pitching late into games. So, does provide more reason as to why Ned Colletti needs to go out and acquire another arm or two?
• Are you a little worried about Manny Ramirez? Has age caught up to him? 1-for-7 is not the way to start out the year.
• Why were the Dodgers so undisciplined at the plate. We here the excuses of Petco for the lack of hitting, but there are still plenty of opportunities to hit singles and doubles. But the Dodgers batters looked like they were clueless, as they swung at pitches out of the strike zone and got behind in counts. Is this going to become a constant problem?

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