When the Padres and Dodgers get together, the determining factor more often than not is which team’s superstars have the better game. All weekend at Chavez Ravine, it was L.A.’s luminaries who stole the show.
Case-in-point: on Sunday afternoon Mookie Betts hit a solo home run off Robert Suarez in the 8th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win and a three-game sweep that sends the Friars, who entered the series with a 1.0 game lead in the National League West, limping back to Petco Park a full 2.0 games back.
The Dodgers jumped on San Diego starter Yu Darvish in the very first inning. Freddie Freeman launched a 3-run home run to stake Los Angeles to a 3-0 lead. Darvish allowed four runs in the first inning but credit to the crafty veteran, he was able to get through three more innings unscathed and give his offense a chance to claw its way back, which is exactly what they did.
San Diego got a run in the 3rd inning on a Fernando Tatis Jr. double, another in the 5th on a home run by Ramon Laureano, one in the 6th thanks to a Ryan O’Hearn RBI double, and finally tied it in the 8th when a grounder from Jose Iglesias brought home Xander Bogaerts. Padres manager Mike Shildt brought in Suarez, the MLB saves leader, to keep the lead intact in the 8th inning, which is a sound strategy.
Betts is going to the Hall of Fame for a reason. The third pitch he saw was an elevated fastball and Mookie didn’t miss, smoking it into the left field seats to put the Dodgers on top 5-4. In the top of the 9th the Padres had their stars aligned to try and get the equalizer.
Tatis Jr. and Luis Arraez both popped out to Freeman at first base and Manny Machado struck out against lefty Alex Vesia to end it. For the day Tatis, Machado, and Bogaerts, the three highest paid players in the lineup, combined to go 1-for-13 with seven strikeouts while Betts, Shohei Ohtani, and Freeman (L.A.’s billion dollar trio) combined were 3-for-11 with a pair of homers and four RBI.
Adding to the rough day is the fact Jackson Merrill left after two at-bats with an ankle issue. He’ll be re-evaluated in the coming days. If you’d like to play the role of eternal optimist, the Padres do get to come home for a 7-game homestand at Petco Park starting Monday against the Giants and ending with a three-game set next weekend against these very same Dodgers.