‘I wish she was alive.’ Eliezer Alfonzo has emotional day as Dodgers lose to Padres

As the announcer called out his name in the lineup, Eliezer Alfonzo hugged fellow Venezuelan Miguel Rojas before the catcher walked down the dugout to greet his teammates and coaches. The two had written messages on their caps in silver ink: On Alfonzo’s, “EyP, RIP,” the initials of his stepmother Patricia and his younger sister Eliana. On Rojas’, a cross was drawn next to “Alfonzo” and below “Fuerza Matatan.” In other words, stay strong, Matatan, the nickname given to Alfonzo’s father, the former major league catcher Eliezer “El Matatán” Alfonzo.

An unimaginable weight rested on his shoulders when Alfonzo stepped into the batter’s box to a standing ovation. Alfonzo’s stepmother and sister were reportedly found dead after the earthquakes in Venezuela last month.

Alfonzo went 0-for-2 in an otherwise quiet Dodgers 5-2 loss to the Padres, though even in that performance, he found moments to reflect. His sister, he said after the game, had a dream that she refused to tell him until it came true.

“I’m pretty sure the dream was something about this. I wish she was alive to watch me play in the big leagues,” Alfonzo said. “But I know she’s in God’s side now, and she’s gonna protect me, and she’s gonna enjoy every moment that I’m gonna have.”

He honored his family’s loss by playing as if his sister were sitting in the stands. Because if she were here, he said, she would be yelling from the stands, “Hit the ball hard!”

The Dodgers catcher had previously clung to hope that the two, who had been reported missing, would be found. His father had searched tirelessly for them, his hope bolstered when he found the family’s dog alive. Alfonzo’s father stayed in the country, searching, when the Dodgers called his son to let him know he’d join the team.

The series finale with the Padres should’ve been a happy day. Most players who have toiled in the minor league system debut in front of applauding friends and family. Instead, Alfonzo’s first appearance, the culmination of nine tireless years, was somber , stricken by the grief overshadowing what should’ve been a joyous moment in the Dodgers’ to the Padres.

Even manager Dave Roberts was lost for words.

“After today, it’s going to really hit him,” Roberts said. “All of us feel for him and his father, who I know, their family. It’s devastating.”

Alfonzo never considered not playing today, despite the personal tragedy. He’s spoken with his brother and his father in Venezuela, who asked him to play in the series finale for his sister. His agent, girlfriend and teammates, like Rojas, also helped Alfonzo approach the game calmly.

“What happened, unfortunately, is out of my hands and part of life,” he said in Spanish. “Only God knows why they happen. I went out there to honor my sister and my stepmother, and give my best in a difficult moment. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the win, but you have to keep moving forward.”

Rojas, who spoke through reddened, teary eyes after the game, knows the family well. He learned from and played against Alfonzo’s father in Venezuelan winter ball. And, in a country struck by tragedy, this loss felt close to home.

“Everybody in Venezuela loves his dad,” Rojas said. “It’s really tough right now to put into context and to put into words. Just for him to be here today and making the decision that he was going to fulfill his childhood dream of playing in the big leagues, thinking about that and thinking about them and what happened over there and what his dad has to be going through right now by himself in Venezuela, it’s really tough.

“For me, I’m just going to support the whole family and especially Eliezer, because I know how hard it is to play like that. It’s been hard for me. Nothing happened to one of my family members, but as soon as I heard the news about them, it hit me as hard as if it were my family. I consider Eliezer Alfonso Sr. one of my close friends in baseball.”

In a way, playing baseball helps bring happiness to those going through tragedy, Rojas said. He knows because he’s lost both his parents, but his family still asks him to play.

“This is how I make a lot of people happy in my family and people who know me,” he said. “This is not just my job. This is who I am.”

Against the Padres, Rojas helped break a five-inning hitless streak for the Dodgers (59-32), who lead MLB in batting average (.265), with a single in the fifth. However, by then, the team had already found itself in a hole.

Emmet Sheehan gave up an RBI single to Padres’ center fielder Jackson Merrill in the fourth inning. In the fifth, he pitched himself into a jam, giving up a successive walk and double that put two runners in scoring position. With no room for error, Sheehan was quickly replaced by Jack Dreyer, who escaped the inning scoreless.

Sheehan (4-6) has now had five straight starts that lasted no more than five innings. But, having given up only one earned run in the series closer to the Padres (44-45), Sheehan’s start could be viewed as a step in the right direction: only three hits and five strikeouts.

“I thought the first three innings were great,” Roberts said. “They really were. I thought the stuff was up, he was on the attack, you’re getting the swing-and-miss, getting the soft contact, he was great.”

However, emotions remained high on both sides. San Diego’s manager Craig Stammen and coach Ryan Goins were ejected three pitches into the game after arguing a check-swing call. The ejection seemed to spark the Padres back from a season-high eight-game losing streak, though the Dodgers didn’t make the win easy at times.

The pressure ratcheted up in the sixth when Shohei Ohtani and Andy Pages worked walks off Yuki Matsui, who replaced JP Sears. The Padres switched pitchers again before Mookie Betts’ two-out at-bat, and the move paid off. Betts hit a routine flyball, and the inning — and the Dodgers’ momentum — ended.

After scoring in the fourth, San Diego extended its lead in the seventh courtesy of Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado. Tatis Jr. beat out a throw from Rojas to Freddie Freeman, driving in one run. And though the Dodgers challenged, the call was upheld. Then, two batters later, reliever Kyle Hurt threw a four-seam fastball down the middle of the plate, and Machado rocketed the pitch to the center field wall beyond the grasp of a leaping Pages.

The Dodgers clawed back two runs in the seventh. Alex Freeland drove in one on a line-drive RBI-single. Ohtani added another one. Neither was enough to win, though it ensured the Dodgers weren’t blanked.

Shohei Ohtani loses his bat during the third inning Sunday.

(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)

Still, the game’s result seemed minuscule when stacked against Alfonso’s personal tragedy and the earthquake’s destruction in Venezuela. And, as the country and its people begin to piece together the full toll of the destruction amid the rubble, the notion of playing baseball seems absurd in the wake of such tragedy.

“It’s not always easy, but sometimes getting on the field, competing, life goes to the wayside,” Roberts said. “And you can just compete and do your job, and that’s sort of a blessing. But yeah, to play every day, and to have to perform, it’s pressure in itself.”

But for the men who have only known how to play baseball since they were young, there’s little else to do.

“That’s the worst feeling, feeling selfish of being here and playing, and we look out there like we’re having fun and we’re laughing,” Rojas said. “At the end, when I put my head to bed after everything is over, after the show is over, it’s really hard to go to sleep. I’m pretty sure a lot of Venezuelans are going through the same thing.”