Much of the talk around baseball so far this season has been the play of the up-and-coming San Diego Padres and their young ace Chris Paddack, who is the National League Rookie of the Year favorite. The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed them to town on Tuesday and reminded why they are the defending six-time NL West division champions, earning a 6-3 victory at Dodger Stadium.
Paddack had arguably the worst start of his Major League career in what was his first outing against the Dodgers. He allowed five hits and six runs (three earned) in just 4.2 innings of work.
The Dodgers offense really broke through against Paddack in the third inning when they took advantage of an error by Manny Machado and plated four runs.
Joc Pederson got the Dodgers on the scoreboard when he launched a two-run home run to right field, his 13th of the season. The longball was a memorable one for Pederson as it was the 100th of his Major League career.
Max Muncy followed up Pederson’s home run with a walk, and then he quickly came around to score on a two-run shot off the bat of Cody Bellinger to left-center field.
Bellinger had another multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 to raise his MLB-leading batting average to .409. The home run was Bellinger’s first since April 28 and it gave him 15 on the season. He later drove in a run on a groundout to run his total to 41 RBI, the most in the Majors.
Clayton Kershaw turned in another quality outing to improve to 3-0 on the season. He allowed five hits and three runs while striking out five and walking one over seven innings.
The Dodgers are undefeated in all six of his starts this year and dating back to last season, have won 14 straight regular-season games that Kershaw took the mound for.
