On Tuesday night at Petco Park, the Dodgers could have used one.
In recent years, the club has punted on plenty of games in the interest of protecting their often injury-riddled and shorthanded pitching staffs. But in an 11-1 loss to the San Diego Padres, they took the act of de facto forfeiture to levels even they hadn’t previously pioneered.
First, they let minor league call-up Matt Sauer wear it — in every definition of the phrase — over a nine-run, 13-hit, 111-pitch outing.
Then, in the face of a nine-run deficit in the bottom of the sixth, they sent position player Kiké Hernández to the mound to pitch the rest of the game.