The highly anticipated National League West showdown lived up to its billing with the Los Angeles Dodgers twice battling back from a deficit and outlasting the San Diego Padres, 11-6 in 12 innings to extend their season-best winning streak to seven games.
After scuttling through the first four innings, most of which was against rookie Ryan Weathers in his first career start, the Dodgers found some traction in the middle innings. It started with Luke Raley tying the game on a solo home run in the fifth.
Fernando Tatis Jr. responded with an emphatic home run in the bottom half of the inning, which not only gave the Padres a 2-1 lead but also was a great sign physically in his first game back after a left shoulder injury.
However, Tatis then was responsible for the Dodgers taking the lead in the sixth. With two outs and runners at the corners in the sixth inning, Chris Taylor pulled a grounder to the hole that Tatis made a terrific diving stop on.
Things then came undone from there as he rushed an ill-advised throw to second base that rolled into foul territory in right field. Justin Turner easily scored the tying run and Max Muncy raced all the way around from first base to give the Dodgers a lead.
They added to that in strange fashion as Zach McKinstry struck out on a pitch that got away and rolled toward the Dodgers’ dugout, allowing Taylor to come home.
Despite having stretches where he lost command and needed to navigate through plenty of traffic, Walker Buehler managed to get through six innings and exited with the lead thanks to the oddity that ensued.
Tatis had an opportunity to atone for his error in the bottom of the seventh but settled for reaching on an error. Blake Treinen induced a would-be inning-ending double play, only for McKinstry’s throw to first base to get away and allow a run to score.
McKinstry made up for his error the next inning by hitting an RBI double off Drew Pomeranz. That loomed large as Corey Knebel’s run of not allowing a hit this season came to an end as he gave up two, including a game-tying two-run double in the bottom of the eighth.
What had been a hitless night for Mookie Betts changed in the ninth inning with a leadoff single, and he scored two batters later on Turner’s RBI single. Kenley Jansen was on the verge of completing a four-out save before he walked Manny Machado with two outs.
Despite appearing to be in considerable pain, Machado stole second base, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Eric Hosmer’s single when the Padres were down to their final strike.
After Dennis Santana and David Price worked out of respective jams, the Dodgers blew the game open in the 11th inning. Corey Seager led off with a two-run homer, and after the Padres failed to turn a double play, L.A. pushed across three more runs.
With San Diego having exhausted nearly all of their pitching staff, Cronenworth was tasked with finishing out the inning.
Meanwhile, Price logged a second scoreless inning to earn a win while pitching on back-to-back nights for the first time this season.
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