Renfroe, Margot power Padres past Dodgers
Padres 3 Dodgers 1 SD: 44-45 overall LAD: 60-31 overall
LOS ANGELES — Hunter Renfroe hit his second lateinning home run in as many days and the San Diego Padres held on for a 3-1 victory Saturday night over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Renfroe broke through in a scoreless pitchers’ duel with a blast in the seventh inning off Kenta Maeda, his team-leading 27th of the season. He also hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning of a victory over the Dodgers on Friday night.
Margot’s two-run homer in the eighth off Maeda made it 3-0.
Trey Wingenter (1-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the victory, while Kirby Yates pitched a scoreless ninth inning for his 29th save of the season and second in two nights.
Maeda (7-5) had given up just one hit until Renfroe got to him with two outs in the seventh. The right-hander gave up three runs and four hits with one walk and six strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings.
Padres starter Chris Paddack pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, throwing 96 pitches, just one off his career high. He gave up three hits with one walk and six strikeouts. Paddack has given up just three earned runs in three starts since a brief trip to the minor leagues last month designed to keep his innings total in check.
The Dodgers looked poised to break through against Paddack in the fifth inning when Matt Beaty doubled, Chris Taylor walked and Russell Martin singled to load the bases with one out. But Paddack struck out Maeda and got the putout at first base on a groundball by Joc Pederson to first baseman Eric Hosmer.
Paddack celebrated the escape with a skip and a fist pump as he retreated to the Padres’ dugout.
The Dodgers avoided the shutout with two outs in the eighth inning. Alex Verdugo doubled to right-center field off Craig Stammen and scored when Padres third baseman Manny Machado was charged with a throwing error after a grounder by Justin Turner.
Los Angeles lost consecutive games for the fifth time since April 23, but has not lost three straight in that stretch. It was the first time the Dodgers lost consecutive games at home since April 12-13 against the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Padres assured themselves of no worse than a split in the four-game series after losing the previous six matchups against the Dodgers.