Jeremiah Estrada has been one of the best relievers for the San Diego Padres all season, but has not been able to carry over that success against the top rival Los Angeles Dodgers.
He has 59.1 innings under his belt over 62 appearances this season, and has posted a 3.19 ERA and 84 strikeouts. However, against the Dodgers, he's surrendered 13 earned runs in 6.1 innings against the division rival.
Padres' reliever gives bizarre reason for his struggles against LA.
On Sunday of the weekend series against LA, Estrada gave up four runs and was unable to get out of the seventh inning. He also gave up a run on Saturday, and in his last outing against the Dodgers in last weekend. All in all, it's been six runs given up to the Dodgers in his last three appearances against them.
Following the game on Sunday, Jeremiah Estrada gave a hilarious reason for his struggles against Los Angeles:
“How I give up 13 runs to one team? It’s baseball. Bunch of goofy (stuff) happens in baseball, doesn’t it? I don’t know," said Estrada.
“I don’t even know. They might even know what color underwear I’m wearing. I don’t even know what the heck it is."
It really is bizarre to think about how good Estrada has been against pretty much every other team he's faced. He's given up a total of 24 runs this season, and 13 coming against one team is an extreme outlier. His ERA would certainly be below 3.00 if he had not faced the Dodgers at all this season.
Estrada is one of five legitimate bullpen options for the Padres down the stretch of the regular season, and potentially into the playoffs. He resided in the bullpen with other formidable names like Mason Miller, Robert Suarez, Adrian Morejon, and Jason Adam.
It is going to be an extremely tight National League West race down the stretch, and Estrada and his bullpen crew is certainly going to be a focal point.