Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Following a rather disappointing series split against the Nationals, the Dodgers welcomed the Padres to a quick two-game set at Dodger Stadium. Facing a rookie phenom on the mound, the bats came prepared and knocked him around a bit to secure a 6-3 victory.
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Chris Paddack had given up just eight runs in his first seven starts to his career, but he surrendered six today in just 4.2 innings against the Dodgers.
The 3rd inning proved to be the difference-making frame, as both Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger hit two-run homers, their 13th and 15th of the year, respectively.
The Dodgers added to Paddack’s woes in 4th when Chris Taylor cashed in a Corey Seager lead-off double with a single of his own to plate their fifth run.
The 5th saw the Dodgers manufacture a bit of offense, as Max Muncy doubled to start, then advanced to third on deep fly-ball, and scored on a Bellinger grounder to second to make it six on the night.
Just as important was what was happening on the other side of the ball. Clayton Kershaw was effective yet again, going seven innings and striking out five, limiting the Padres to just five hits and a walk.
But as we’ve been saying all year, the problem has been the home runs, and he gave up two more of them tonight. One was a solo homer by Franmil Reyes in the 1st and the other was an absolute moonshot for two runs by Manny Machado in the 3rd. That accounted for all three of the runs that Kershaw surrendered on the night.
Pedro Baez is (rightly) the setup man now, and he took over in the 8th. Petey Good allowed a single but faced the minimum thanks to a double play and a strikeout.
That left things up to Kenley Jansen with a three-run lead. He got a scoreless frame that included a strikeout to secure the victory.
Though he did allow a Manny double, and got him to laugh in the middle of an at-bat after getting him out in front on a slider.
He also had a bit of a conflict with Austin Barnes, though it doesn’t seem like a big deal.
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Cody doesn’t seem like he’s about to be a ‘barrels are overrated’ celebration consultant any time soon.
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The victory gets the Dodgers to 28-16 on the season (103-win pace), and puts them 4.5 games clear of the Diamondbacks in the NL West.
They’ll try for the mini-sweep tomorrow at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST with Kenta Maeda squaring off against Matt Strahm.
