Led by a three-run home run from Matt Kemp, and taking advantage of a porous San Diego Padres defense, the Los Angeles Dodgers came away with a 10-3 blowout victory in the series opener at Petco Park.
Before the Padres began to come apart, their defense prevented the Dodgers from scoring an additional run. After Cody Bellinger led off the second inning with a walk, Matt Kemp roped a single to the left-center field gap.
Franchy Cordero cut the ball off and threw Kemp out on his attempt to stretch the hit to a double. That meant only Bellinger scored when Yasmani Grandal followed with a booming double off the center field fence.
The Padres erased their deficit in the bottom half of the inning behind a two-run home run by Christin Villanueva. It was his sixth homer on the season and third in as many games.
The slim lead was short-lived, however, as the Padres didn’t do Robbie Erlin any favors in the third inning. Villanueva’s error on a chopper put Taylor at second base without nobody out, then Hunter Renfroe allowed a line drive to carry over his head.
The error tied the game and allowed Corey Seager to reach third base. An RBI base hit from Kiké Hernandez gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead, Bellinger singled, and Kemp’s three-run blast blew the game open. Grandal’s grand slam in the ninth inning ultimately loomed large.
Hyun-Jin Ryu didn’t just uphold the lead, he dominated the Padres over six innings. San Diego did threaten in the fourth inning, when a hit by pitch and single put two on with one out.
But Ryu kept the Padres off the board by striking out Cordero and Carlos Asuaje. That marked a string of eight consecutive batters retired for the southpaw. Ryu finished with nine strikeouts and limited the Padres to two runs on three hits.
It marked a second consecutive start he had at least eight strikeouts, which is a first since April 2013.
Tony Cingrani and Josh Fields combined for back-to-back hitless innings, while Scott Alexander faced some trouble in the ninth and allowed a run before stranding two runners to end the game.
