The Dodgers lost a game Wednesday by six runs, 7-1 to the Athletics<\/a>. The Padres lost a game by 20 runs<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, standings and statistics be damned, the Dodgers are coming for the Padres, their closest pursers in the division even if \u201cclose\u201d is relative. The Dodgers didn\u2019t have to say anything out loud, but you could see it on the field Wednesday.<\/p>\n Shohei Ohtani was the scheduled starting pitcher, but the Dodgers pushed him back so he could face the Padres this weekend. The Padres will face Roki Sasaki on Thursday, Ohtani on Friday and Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Sunday.<\/p>\n And the Dodgers still won a series in Sacramento, behind Eric Lauer and Justin Wrobleski. Now comes a 10-game sprint to the All-Star break against division rivals, starting with the Padres.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re all big for us,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cWe try to take every series with the same importance, but obviously winning that series is the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n For the final game of the Athletics series Wednesday, with Ohtani held back, the Dodgers used Jack Dreyer as a first-inning opener, then handed the ball to triple-A callup Charlie Barnes and told him to go as long as he could.<\/p>\n That did not go well and still went exactly according to plan.<\/p>\n In what was billed as a bullpen game, Barnes handled the final seven innings, leaving the varsity bullpen in fine shape for the Padres series.<\/p>\n \u201cFor him to be able to save everyone else puts us in a great position for the four games this weekend,\u201d Roberts said.<\/p>\n The innings were not great. The first batter Barnes faced, Jonah Heim, deposited a 444-foot home run on the roof of the Dodgers\u2019 clubhouse beyond the center-field fence.<\/p>\n The A\u2019s bunched 11 hits over the first four innings against Barnes and his 90-mph fastball, and still the Dodgers gave Barnes the rest of the game, because a 12-game lead affords you the chance to sacrifice today in order to line up your pitching for your tomorrows.<\/p>\n In all, Barnes gave up seven runs and 12 hits, including three home runs. He did make a very reasonable 79 pitches over his seven innings.<\/p>\n Barnes, a 30-year-old still in search of his first major league victory, barely had a chance to take in the evening before Roberts told him immediately after the game that he would return to triple-A, with Paul Gervase coming up as a fresh arm.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tough for me to enjoy it when you give up seven,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the business. I did my job in providing length. Any time they need that or may want that, I\u2019ll do my best to give it to them.\u201d<\/p>\n This was not all on Barnes, to be sure. When Wrobleski won his 10th game in a 9-3 victory on Tuesday, he said the offense deserved a fair share of the credit for his success.<\/p>\n \u201cWe bang,\u201d Wrobleski said, \u201cso you can get a lot of wins if you go deep in games and go five innings. That\u2019s more of a team thing than it is a performance thing for me, but it\u2019s super cool.\u201d<\/p>\n After collecting 17 hits here on Monday and 14 more on Tuesday, the Dodgers mustered five hits Wednesday, including a 431-foot home run from Freddie Freeman.<\/p>\n The Dodgers went hitless with runners in scoring position, leaving the bases loaded in the first inning, two men on in the third and two more in the eighth.<\/p>\n Will Smith out until after All-Star break<\/p>\n The first half of the season will conclude with Will Smith<\/a> in the same place he has been for the last month: the injured list.<\/p>\n
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