Dodgers 11, Padres 2: Birthday boy Freddie Freeman has a 4-hit day with a homer, Kyle Hurt makes stellar debut

Chad Moriyama 09/12/2023 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

After dropping one in extras yesterday, the Dodgers bounced back against the Padres today, leading all the way in an impressive 11-2 victory.

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Michael Wacha, who the Dodgers definitely don’t regret passing on for Corey Seager (sorry, Bob!), is having another nice season, but didn’t have a nice time today.

A Freddie Freeman single and Will Smith double was followed by a Max Muncy sacrifice fly in the 1st to start the scoring.

After a quiet 2nd, they extended the lead in the 3rd, as Enrique Hernandez singled and Freeman smacked his 26th homer of the year to make it 3-0.

They weren’t done in the inning as back-to-back-to-back walks from Smith, Muncy, and J.D. Martinez loaded things up, and a David Peralta grounder drove in a run that made it 4-0.

Meanwhile, Lance Lynn was on the other side for the Dodgers, notable due to his immense struggles lately and his surprising lack of strikeouts during that span.

Things … well, didn’t look great early on. He gave up a walk and infield single to start the game, but then got the next three to strand that opportunity for the Padres. After a clean 2nd, he faced the minimum in the 3rd thanks to a pristine 6-4-3 double play on a diving stop by Enrique.

Lynn finally relented in the 4th, getting into a major clusterfuck behind a double, single, and walk to load things up with nobody out. Trent Grisham sorta bailed him out a bit by bunting to third, scoring a run but also giving him an easy out without moving the other runners.

So it was 4-1, but Lynn managed to escape the serious damage, and the run was redeemed and then some by the offense in their half of the 4th.

An Enrique infield single and a Freddie single set the table for Dills, who maybe is finally getting unstuck with his 18th homer of the year to make it 7-1.

Lynn did come back out in the 5th and give a run back via a Fernando Tatis Jr. homer, but it could’ve been worse had James Outman not made a diving catch on the batter before.

Lynn settled in from there, though. He allowed just one baserunner (another Muncy error, yeesh) over the next two frames to help rest the pen.

7 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 111 Pitches

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Things seemed to settle on the other side as well with Wacha out, as the Dodgers got just a walk between the 5th and 6th frames. However, in the 7th Dills got hit by a pitch, Muncy got a bloop single over third, and J.D. walked to load things up with nobody out.

After the pinch-hitting Amed Rosario struck out, pinch-hitter Chris Taylor blooped a single to center to plate a run, and Outman cracked a sac fly for another to push the lead to 9-2.

They continued to tack on in the 8th with a Mookie walk, Freddie double, and then a J.D. single to drive in two more to push the lead to 11-2.

To finish out the game for the Dodgers was recent call-up Kyle Hurt making his MLB debut, who was as impressive as can possibly be.

In the 8th, he retired Tatis, Soto, and Manny Machado in order, then came into the 9th and struck out the side to end it. Sheesh.

If he has any chance of making the playoff roster, that’s the kind of stuff he needs to show.

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NLRECORD
Braves95-50
Dodgers88-56 (6.5 GB)
NL WESTRECORD
Dodgers88-56
Diamondbacks76-70 (13 GB)

*Either still playing or will play later.

The rubber match of this series will be played tomorrow, again at the same time of 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. It’ll be Ryan Pepiot looking to further his outstanding start to the season, facing off against a playoff-caliber opponent and potential NL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.

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