Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw didn’t have his best stuff Wednesday night (he never seems to this time of year), but this pitch, a 74-mph curveball that died before it even reached the plate, was more than enough to flummox Padres slugger Jurickson Profar, who struck out to begin the fourth inning.
Regarded as a relatively patient hitter—he ranked 100th out of 130 qualifiers in chase rate this season (43.3 percent versus MLB’s 47.7 league average)—Profar also makes better contact than most, whiffing on only 17.1 percent of pitches in 2022. And though he entered Game 2 with a lifetime .231 average versus Kershaw (3-for-13 with a pair of strikeouts), Profar actually got the better of the left-hander in their first encounter of the night, roping a one-out single to center in the second inning. But, for whatever reason, Profar, in defiance of all logic and reason, thought he’d give Kershaw’s 0-2 offering a whirl, providing a meme-worthy blunder for the social media masses to point and laugh at.
Luckily for Profar, his out-of-character mistake barely registered, a mere footnote on a chaotic night that saw the visiting Padres even the series at 1-1, handing the Dodgers a rare loss on their home field, where the NL West Champs won a league-high 57 games during the regular season (.704-win percentage). For East Coasters who weren’t awake to see it, Wednesday’s game was at one point hijacked by a delinquent goose (perhaps a distant relative of the Tigers’ infamous “Rally Goose” that went viral in 2018) who rudely interrupted play in the eighth inning, mimicking Craig Kimbrel’s unusual posture while trespassing on stadium property.
It was only fitting then, that closer Josh Hader logged 1 1/3 innings for the save, matching a feat first accomplished by, you guessed it, Goose Gossage in 1984. The two teams will get a breather Thursday before returning to action Friday night in San Diego, where Tony Gonsolin will oppose his Padres counterpart Blake Snell in a battle of National League heavyweights.
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