The Los Angeles Dodgers overcame a first-inning deficit but ultimately suffered a 5-3 loss that resulted in being swept by the San Diego Padres.
San Diego continued their theme of the series at Petco Park by striking first as Jake Cronenworth’s home run to right field gave them a 2-0 lead in the first inning. It marked a third consecutive game Cronenworth went deep.
Longtime Trevor Bauer nemesis Manny Machado followed that by hitting a mammoth solo homer to the second deck in left field. That capped off a string of Bauer throwing nothing but sliders to Machado.
Dating back to their matchups on April 24, the home run Machado hit came on the 21st consecutive slider he saw from Bauer. Machado saw fastballs in his subsequent at-bats Wednesday night.
Following strong performances by Yu Darvish and Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove held the Dodgers without a hit until Max Muncy led off the fourth inning with a double. Up to that point the only baserunner L.A. had was Justin Turner on a hit by pitch with two outs in the first inning.
Will Smith cut into the Dodgers’ deficit with a one-out RBI single, and they pulled even when Cody Bellinger scored due to Fernando Tatis Jr. throwing the ball away on a potential double play. Bellinger went 0-for-2 with two walks in his return from the 10-day injured list.
Bauer settled in after the rocky first inning as he finished the night with 10 strikeouts. However, Bauer’s momentum was stopped when Victor Caratini led off the bottom of the seventh with a go-ahead home run.
Bauer nearly wasn’t in that situation as Albert Pujols was on deck to pinch-hit in the top half of the inning when Zach McKinstry flied to center field for the third out.
Turner’s RBI single tied the game in the eighth inning, only for the Padres to take advantage of sloppy defense and answer back with two more to take a decided lead in the bottom half.
Dodgers outplayed by Padres
The Dodgers are 3-7 against the Padres this season and have now dropped four consecutive head-to-head meetings. “Just got to find a way to win those games,” manager Dave Roberts said after Tuesday’s loss.
“I think they’ve all been pretty close ballgames. I think the difference is they’ve gotten some timely hits, played very good defense and pitched well against us. We’re in those games, I still like our guys. We’ve just got to find a way to win them.”
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