{"id":915686,"date":"2026-07-06T05:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T05:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/915686\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T05:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T05:38:27","slug":"i-wish-she-was-alive-eliezer-alfonzo-has-emotional-day-as-dodgers-lose-to-padres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/915686\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I wish she was alive.’ Eliezer Alfonzo has emotional day as Dodgers lose to Padres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the announcer called out his name in the lineup, Eliezer Alfonzo<\/a> 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\u2019s, \u201cEyP, RIP,\u201d the initials of his stepmother Patricia and his younger sister Eliana. On Rojas\u2019, a cross was drawn next to \u201cAlfonzo\u201d and below \u201cFuerza Matatan.\u201d In other words, stay strong, Matatan, the nickname given to Alfonzo\u2019s father, the former major league catcher Eliezer \u201cEl Matat\u00e1n\u201d Alfonzo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An unimaginable weight rested on his shoulders when Alfonzo stepped into the batter\u2019s box to a standing ovation. Alfonzo\u2019s stepmother and sister were reportedly found dead after the earthquakes in Venezuela last month.<\/p>\n

Alfonzo went 0-for-2 in an otherwise quiet Dodgers 5-2 loss<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty sure the dream was something about this. I wish she was alive to watch me play in the big leagues,\u201d Alfonzo said. \u201cBut I know she\u2019s in God\u2019s side now, and she\u2019s gonna protect me, and she\u2019s gonna enjoy every moment that I\u2019m gonna have.\u201d<\/p>\n

He honored his family\u2019s 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, \u201cHit the ball hard!\u201d <\/p>\n

The Dodgers<\/a> 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\u2019s dog alive. Alfonzo\u2019s father stayed in the country, searching, when the Dodgers called his son to let him know he\u2019d join the team.<\/p>\n

The series finale with the Padres should\u2019ve been a happy day. Most players who have toiled in the minor league system debut in front of applauding friends and family. Instead, Alfonzo\u2019s first appearance, the culmination of nine tireless years, was somber , stricken by the grief overshadowing what should\u2019ve been a joyous moment in the Dodgers\u2019 to the Padres.<\/p>\n

Even manager Dave Roberts was lost for words.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter today, it\u2019s going to really hit him,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAll of us feel for him and his father, who I know, their family. It\u2019s devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alfonzo never considered not playing today, despite the personal tragedy. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened, unfortunately, is out of my hands and part of life,\u201d he said in Spanish. \u201cOnly 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\u2019t get the win, but you have to keep moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rojas, who spoke through reddened, teary eyes after the game, knows the family well. He learned from and played against Alfonzo\u2019s father in Venezuelan winter ball. And, in a country struck by tragedy, this loss felt close to home.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in Venezuela loves his dad,\u201d Rojas said. \u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019s really tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, I\u2019m just going to support the whole family and especially Eliezer, because I know how hard it is to play like that. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a way, playing baseball helps bring happiness to those going through tragedy, Rojas said. He knows because he\u2019s lost both his parents, but his family still asks him to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how I make a lot of people happy in my family and people who know me,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is not just my job. This is who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Against the Padres, Rojas helped break a five-inning hitless streak for the Dodgers (59-32<\/a>), 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.<\/p>\n

Emmet Sheehan gave up an RBI single to Padres\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s start could be viewed as a step in the right direction: only three hits and five strikeouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought the first three innings were great,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cThey really were. I thought the stuff was up, he was on the attack, you\u2019re getting the swing-and-miss, getting the soft contact, he was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, emotions remained high on both sides. San Diego\u2019s 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\u2019t make the win easy at times.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 two-out at-bat, and the move paid off. Betts hit a routine flyball, and the inning \u2014 and the Dodgers\u2019 momentum \u2014 ended.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t blanked.<\/p>\n

\"Shohei <\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani loses his bat during the third inning Sunday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Still, the game\u2019s result seemed minuscule when stacked against Alfonso\u2019s personal tragedy and the earthquake\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not always easy, but sometimes getting on the field, competing, life goes to the wayside,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cAnd you can just compete and do your job, and that\u2019s sort of a blessing. But yeah, to play every day, and to have to perform, it\u2019s pressure in itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for the men who have only known how to play baseball since they were young, there\u2019s little else to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the worst feeling, feeling selfish of being here and playing, and we look out there like we\u2019re having fun and we\u2019re laughing,\u201d Rojas said. \u201cAt the end, when I put my head to bed after everything is over, after the show is over, it\u2019s really hard to go to sleep. I\u2019m pretty sure a lot of Venezuelans are going through the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the announcer called out his name in the lineup, Eliezer Alfonzo hugged fellow Venezuelan Miguel Rojas before…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":915687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[5955,2442,350406,343578,246,8761,5951,1910,22892,1266,2749,8037,140837,3549,369992,62,369993,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-915686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-andy-pages","tag-dodgers","tag-eliezer-alfonzo","tag-emmett-sheehan","tag-family","tag-father","tag-fourth-inning","tag-game","tag-manny-machado","tag-mlb","tag-mookie-betts","tag-padres","tag-rojas","tag-san-diego","tag-seventh-courtesy","tag-sports","tag-stepmother-patricia","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116871425579024596","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}