The Los Angeles Dodgers hit three home runs off Yu Darvish in the first inning and rode the early lead to a 7-2 win over the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers improved to 14-1 in their last 15 games against the Padres and have a 4.5-game lead in the National League West standings.
Darvish has enjoyed his fair share of success against the Dodgers, but they scored in each of the first three innings. Freddie Freeman and Will Smith combined for back-to-back home runs in the first, and Justin Turner capped off the inning with a solo blast of his own.
Darvish was then let down by his defense in the second inning as José Azocar couldn’t fight off the sun as a line drive grazed his glove and resulted in a two-out double for Gavin Lux. Trea Turner followed the gift double with an RBI single.
Justin Turner’s base hit and advancing on a wild pitch led to another run in the third inning, with Jake Lamb driving him in on a slicing double to left field. Lamb’s fly ball landed just out of the reach of Jurickson Profar on a diving attempt.
Darvish did keep the Dodgers off the board from there and finished with 10 strikeouts over six innings. However, his effort was bested by Tyler Anderson.
The southpaw bounced back from consecutive starts in which he struggled some to limit the Padres to just one run over 6.1 innings. Anderson did not allow the Padres to cut into their deficit until a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.
Brusdar Graterol allowed a single before stranding two runners. He ended the inning by throwing a 101 mph sinker to get Manny Machado swinging.
Dodgers score without hit
After Graterol helped the Dodgers limit damage, they scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning without collecting a hit. Ray Kerr walked the bases loaded with nobody out, which set up a pair of sacrifice flies.
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