The Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t benefit from home cooking as their first night back at Dodger Stadium from a nine-game road trip resulted in a 4-3 loss to the San Diego Padres.
Rich Hill had early command trouble but it paled in comparison to taking a fastball from Clayton Richard off his upper chest in the bottom of the fourth inning. Hill immediately went down in a heap of pain and was checked on by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and trainer Nate Lucero.
Hill eventually rose to his feet and remained in the game, and went on to throw two scoreless innings as a welt and bruise formed on his chest. On the night the veteran southpaw allowed two runs over six innings while collecting nine strikeouts.
Hill was taken to the hospital out of precaution, and the Dodgers announced x-rays came back negative.
One of the runs he allowed came on a Manuel Margot solo homer, while the second scored on Cory Spangenberg’s base hit to right field. Yasiel Puig aided his pitcher by firing a strike to home plate to throw out Hunter Renfroe and end the third inning.
The Dodgers took a lead in the first inning behind Justin Turner’s two-out double and Cody Bellinger’s RBI single. Richard allowed a leadoff double to Chris Taylor followed by a base hit to Corey Seager in the bottom of the third. He hit Turner with a pitch to load the bases with nobody out.
Bellinger’s second RBI single of the night tied the game. That was the lone run Richard allowed in the inning, however, despite loading the bases a second time. It ultimately proved key for the Padres.
Austin Barnes’ two-out RBI double off Richard gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead in the fifth, but it didn’t hold.
Margot clubbed his second solo home run of the night in the seventh, and Ross Stripling didn’t fare any better in a second inning of work as he then surrendered a go-ahead homer to Jose Pirela to lead off the eighth.
Barnes led off the bottom half of the inning with a walk, but was stranded. The Dodgers failed to put the tying run on base in the ninth and suffered a second loss in their last four games. Brad Hand, who was connected to the Dodgers leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline, converted a four-out save.
Despite the loss, Los Angeles extended their streak of to 55 consecutive games with an extra-base hit. It’s the longest such stretch since at least 1913.
