‘IT’S JUST HUGE FOR US’
Two outs from being swept by rival Dodgers, Padres rally with four runs in the ninth
LOS ANGELES
The Padres would have been able to come up with many reasons being swept by the Dodgers at the beginning of July wasn’t that big of a deal. Three months to go and all that. It’s not as if that would have been untrue. The season just reached its halfway point for the Padres on Sunday.
But it was going to be a long bus ride home, and a bluecolored cloud would have remained over the Padres had they not come back in the ninth inning Sunday for a 4-2 victory that stopped a losing streak at Dodger Stadium of nine games.
“We definitely didn’t want to get swept leaving here,” said Eric Hosmer, whose ninth-inning single gave the Padres their first lead since the second inning of Thursday’s series opener. “We did a good job of finding a way to come out with a win. Obviously, the series didn’t go our way, but to get this one was big against (Clayton) Kershaw, and (Craig Kimbrel) and their guys. So that was a big one. Big win for us.”
After three days in which the Padres scored a total of four runs and were 3-for-21 with runners in scoring position, inning after inning of futility was adding up.
“It’s a big swing,” manager Bob Melvin said. “If you look at the standings — I don’t a lot, but losing a fourth one, you can count.”
Instead of being 5½ games behind the Dodgers, the Padres practically floated out of Chavez Ravine grateful for a 3½-game deficit in the National League West.
“It doesn’t feel like we lost three,” said Luke Voit, whose double in the ninth scored Jake Cronenworth to tie the game the Padres had trailed 1-0 since the first inning. “It’s just huge for us because we’ve had a tough stretch since Philly.”
The victory was the Padres’ third in 10 games (since the start of a series against the Phillies at Petco Park) and their sixth in 16 games (since the start of a series June 17 in Colorado).
The Dodgers didn’t hit a home run for the first time in the series and this time were the ones with lots of baserunners stranded and not much to show for an excellent performance by their starting pitcher.
That allowed the Padres to finally show how they often win games — waiting out a good starting pitcher and eventually pouncing.
This one was extreme, even for them, as they won for just the second time this season in a game in which they trailed after eight innings.
Jake Cronenworth began the final inning with a one-out single off Kimbrel’s back. Voit’s double off the top of the wall in left field tied the
game. Hosmer’s line-drive single scored pinch-runner CJ Abrams and drove Kimbrel from the game. Two batters later, Ha-Seong Kim’s two-run homer off Yency Almonte provided what would be the winning margin.
Taylor Rogers allowed a run before locking down his 23rd save.
It was the Padres’ second victory in 16 games against the Dodgers dating to last season.
The Dodgers were two outs from securing a victory in which they scored only once — on back-to-back doubles to start the game. Seven innings of excellence (four hits, one walk) by Kershaw followed, Evan Phillips pitched a perfect eighth and Kimbrel came on attempting to convert his 15th save of the season and second of the series.
Before the ninth, José Azocar was the Padres’ only runner to get past first base. After leading off the third inning with a double, he moved to third on Jurickson Profar’s groundout before being thrown out trying to score on Manny Machado’s grounder to shortstop.
Padres rookie MacKenzie Gore surrendered a run before he got an out and recorded just one clean inning. But the left-hander also did what is becoming customary for him as he scrapped his way through trouble, didn’t allow another run and came within a step of completing a quality start.
In the first, Mookie Betts and Trea Turner both turned on 2-0 fastballs and
sent them to the corner for Profar to chase down.
Down 1-0 quickly, Gore got Freddie Freeman on a f ly ball to left field but had to face seven batters and throw 29 pitches before leaving the bases loaded by striking out Trayce Thompson to end the first inning.
“We needed to keep them to that one right there,” Gore said. “It happened quick, but we were able to settle down and get through it.”
Two-out walks by Betts, which were followed by Turner getting on with a single and by taking a curveball
to the foot, prolonged the second and fourth innings. The fourth ended with Profar fielding Freeman’s single in left and throwing out Betts at the plate.
After retiring the Dodgers in order in the fifth, Gore walked Thompson to start the sixth. He got two outs and looked to have possibly gotten a double-play grounder from Gavin Lux. But Kim took the throw from Cronenworth and after a 360-degree turn had his throw to first arrive a splitsecond after Lux had crossed the bag.
With Gore at 100 pitches,
Nick Martinez was called on and ended the inning by getting a grounder from Turner.
Martinez (3-3) allowed one hit in his 21⁄3 innings and got the win.
The Padres are now 2-5 against the Dodgers this season. The teams have 12 games remaining — three here the first week of August and three more at the beginning of September and the final spread over two September series at Petco Park.
So there truly is a long way to go. The Padres won seven of the first 10 games the teams played last year before dropping the final
nine as they spiraled out of playoff contention.
“I liked the way the last game went,” Melvin said when asked to assess the past four games. “Didn’t feel too terribly great the first three. But as you saw last year, too, I think this club had their way with the Dodgers early on. It’s not until the season goes a little further that anything is decided. But, you know, certain games — at least for your confidence as a team — are bigger than others. And today was a big one.”