LOS ANGELES -- If the scoreboards above Dodger Stadium's iconic pavilions seemed to have accumulated too much mass on this Monday night, given the Pirates' 17-1 slaughter at the home team's hands, consider this: Their starting pitcher committed two catching errors, a balk, a walk, and a late break off the mound that conceded an infield single.
But hey, at least all of the above was confined to the first inning.
"That's kind of what started everything, a few mishaps," Nick Kingham would say afterward with a slight shake of the head and no shortage of understatement. "That's what kickstarted the way the whole night turned out."
Yep. Not much more to analyze.
Not Kingham's latest recall from the Indianapolis shuttle resulting in three-plus innings, seven runs, eight hits, three of them clearing fences by Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson and Max Muncy ...
... and certainly not when poor Tanner Anderson was forced to make the most damning of big-league debuts -- Tyler Glasnow, Kyle Crick and Richard Rodriguez were all deemed unavailable in the pen -- by spewing up six more runs on eight more hits, a couple walks and a catching error of his own.
That scene, in particular, was so regrettable that the kid couldn't even collect the ball from his first career strikeout, as David Freese, so far after the fact, casually tossed the ball into the crowd after one inning had ended.
I asked Anderson, who'd pitched well enough at Class AAA Indianapolis -- 2.34 ERA, 1.24 WHIP in 24 appearances -- to have earned his first callup at age 25, about the requisite nerves and jitters, and it was easy to see the effort involved in sounding upbeat:
Yuck.
But again, there really wasn't much more to analyze beyond Kingham's catastrophic opening inning, which couldn't conceivably have gone worse in the peripheral non-pitching sense.
After one quick out, Muncy bounced to Josh Harrison, shifted in shallow right, and J-Hay winged a pinpoint, belt-high toss ... that Kingham let clang off his glove. Muncy took second. After another out, Kingham balked Muncy to third. Bellinger was next, and his swinging bunt lay in no-man's-grass between Kingham and Elias Diaz, but Kingham indecisively took a circuitous route and stutter-stepped there, killing any play.
And wow, this was just 1-0, with the most mind-warping moment still to come:
That's right. Kingham couldn't catch a standard Diaz toss-back following a pitch to the next batter, and Bellinger raced home to make it 2-0 and, in the feel sense, probably a lot closer to the 17-1 final because Kingham had already shown himself to be a wreck.
No, more like a five-car pileup on the nearby freeway.
Why?
As I mentioned in the question above, nerves and jitters really didn't make sense. Sure, he hadn't been in the majors since June 9, but this was his seventh big-league start, and the first of those, as most will recall, was that scintillating perfect-game flirtation in which he retired the Cardinals' first 20 batters on the way to a seven-inning victory. He fared OK in the one after that, too, beating the Brewers on the strength of seven Ks. But the past five, all losses, have seen him give up 19 runs and 21 hits over 26 innings.
So much for that safety net if Chad Kuhl's out for any significant period, as seems likely with any elbow issue.
For his part, Clint Hurdle wasn't exactly chatty afterward. He generally isn't after lopsided losses, not because he cowers from them but because of his longstanding philosophy that these happen.
He opened his postgame media session thusly with a caustic smile: "I'm looking forward to getting you guys in here and answering these questions ... and then getting out of here."
The first question then brought this: "All I'm going to share with you tonight is that I'm going to get you guys out of here, take care of you, professionally answer your questions and go home."
With that, seeing he wasn't about to tackle Kingham, I asked how he as a manager handles a debut going as awfully awry as Anderson's did. As I noted, it's different.
"Yeah, it is," Hurdle replied. "I had a conversation with Tanner. It's a rough, rough result. For a kid who's pitched very well. And we needed him to hang in there and give us the length that he gave us, so told him we're appreciative of that. This was still his first major-league appearance, and he worked hard to get here. There will be a day where he'll be able to look back on this and find a smile in there somewhere."
Maybe.
• Pull up a chair for historical perspective for a franchise that's 132 years old: This was the most runs the Pirates have given up in a single game since a 17-2 loss to the Cubs last season. It was not far off from the infamous 20-0 loss in 2010 to the Brewers at PNC Park, one I recall way too vividly. Going way back, there was the 23-6 loss in 1943, also to the Dodgers but when they were based in Brooklyn. And going way, way back, there was a 28-14 loss in 1897 to the Boston Beaneaters.
Anyway ... that's about all I've got. I really just wanted to see if 'Beaneaters' cleared spellcheck.
• No, seriously, why are you still reading this?
• Wait, I know: It's because this evening also generated the silliest scoring quirk of the summer when Los Angeles' Caleb Ferguson was credited with a save in a 17-1 game.
I swear, it's right there in the box:
TAP ABOVE FOR BOXSCORE, STANDINGS, VIDEOIt's also completely legit. Rule 10.19 from the official book states that the official scorer "shall credit a pitcher with a save when such pitcher meets all four of the following conditions:"
- He is the finishing pitcher in a game won by his team
- He is not the winning pitcher
- He is credited with at least 1/3 of an inning pitched
- He satisfies one of the following conditions:
- He enters the game with a lead of no more than three runs and pitches for at least one inning
- He enters the game, regardless of the count, with the potential tying run either on base, at bat or on deck
- He pitches for at least three innings
So that very last one did it. Ferguson pitched three scoreless innings and got a little S next to his name for killing the clock.
• Dave Roberts showed no shortage of gall calling for a video challenge of Josh Bell's steal in the eighth, holding a 17-1 lead. Never mind that the Dodgers were dead-on and got it overturned. It just had the worst look. Hard to say what's protocol on that, since review is still so new, but here's betting that'll get someone bruised within the next generation.
• On the bright side from that side, Yasiel Puig did this in the seventh on a Jordy Mercer double to right:
That, my friends, is the best baseball thing I've witnessed all summer. What a freak that guy is.
• Also on the bright side from that side, Matt Kemp went 5 for 5 with four RBIs and a mammoth three-run shot to left off Steven Brault in the sixth, a performance Roberts called "a clinic."
Roberts did find some mercy in his soul by double-switching Kemp out after that, but not before the crowd of 45,207 showered down with justified 'M-V-P!' chants. He's easily the comeback player of the year and probably more, with a slash line of .323/.369/.565 and 15 home runs.
In July so far, he's 8 for bleeping 8 with two home runs, two doubles and seven RBIs.
"It feels pretty good," he'd say afterward. "But we're two days in. We'll see how it goes tomorrow."
That'll be Ivan Nova's primary concern.
• Here's a bright side for the visitors: Gregory Polanco went 1 for 4, but all three of his outs were lasers and, naturally, the one hit was a little roller to third ... because baseball. Nevertheless, he's still sizzling, having reached safely in 27 of his past 48 plate appearances.
• And another: Corey Dickerson, staying back on the ball and slicing away, went 3 for 3. That's an encouraging continuation of his Sunday in San Diego that saw his first home run since May 4, his first RBI since June 9.
• One last one, for real: Elias Diaz hit a loud home run, his seventh, in the second inning off lefty Alex Wood. That fulfilled Hurdle's pregame decision to bat him cleanup because he's been "our best against lefties," which matters in a series that's got the Dodgers throwing nothing but. For the season against lefties, Diaz is now 16 for 32.
• My thoughts on Starling Marte being benched by Hurdle for the first two games of this series, particularly as it pertains to that once-controversial four-outfielder concept:
• All right, we get to do this again the very next day. With both sides using big-league pitchers. And one of those being Clayton Kershaw.
Yet another beautiful baseball thing.