Former Yankees hurler makes brutal first impression in Padres' Seoul Series loss

With a 2-1 lead hanging in the balance and a chance to embarrass (or, at least, toss pebbles at) the almighty Dodgers in their season-opening Seoul Series contest, the San Diego Padres turned to a pair of former Yankees. The first call to the bullpen went far better than the second.

In the seventh, San Diego's Mike Shildt called on Wandy Peralta to knife through the heart of the order. He appeared to be in midseason form, retiring Mookie Betts on a hard liner to center, then making an extremely athletic play on a Shohei Ohtani dribbler, escaping the frame unscathed.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, he returned for the eighth, opening things up with a walk to Max Muncy after the Padres failed to cash in on Tyler Wade's single in the bottom half of the seventh (classic). That meant a managerial finger in the air and another Yankees' debut in brown-and-gold: Jhony Brito.

While the Swiss Army knife right-hander found his niche in the bullpen towards the end of last season in the Bronx, he wasn't able to effortlessly gobble up innings in quite the same way on Wednesday morning. A Teoscar Hernández single and walk to James Outman loaded the bases before a Kiké Hernández sacrifice fly cashed in Muncy and tied the game. Brito exited, then was forced to watch the ensuing carnage, as Jake Cronenworth's glove allowed several more runs to score, tagging him with the loss.

Three-batter minimum achieved. Two of them reached base. Both of those men scored.

Former Yankees pitcher Jhony Brito tagged by Dodgers in Seoul Series

Hopefully, this is rock bottom for Brito. With Drew Thorpe now in Chicago, the Yankees are down to four legacy members who can ultimately help the Padres prove to be "winners" of the Juan Soto trade (Brito, Michael King, Randy Vásquez, Kyle Higashioka).

Oh, and how's Thorpe doing? Eight casual runs in his first White Sox appearance, no thanks for asking. Brutal.

The regular season truly snuck up on us all this year, and not just because we were mutually distracted by the Blake Snell chase until the final whistle. Plenty for Brito to clean up moving forward. This will not be his Padres legacy, of course, but still ... not the start anybody wanted, especially with all eyes on San Diego's showcase and all objective rooters hoping for an early-season dose of Dodgers downfall. Sorry the former Yankees couldn't save America this time.