Dodgers 4, Padres 2: Mookie Betts stays hot and recreates Game 7 as the Dodgers take the series

Chad Moriyama 06/28/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The Dodgers and Padres have typically played close games, but neither was that way so far this series as they exchanged results. In the rubber match, things were a lot more conventional between the two teams, but it was the Dodgers who took the lead in the middle innings thanks to Mookie Betts, and from there the pen hung on for dear life in a 4-2 victory.

Why it look like Vesia going to class?

— Chad Moriyama (@chadmoriyama.bsky.social) 2026-06-28T22:16:18.186Z

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Padres starter Michael King has generally been nuts against the Dodgers, including earlier this year, but there was a sign that he perhaps wasn’t as sharp early. To start, he retired six of the first seven he faced, but did hit Andy Pages and had an erratic spray pattern.

Then in the 3rd, he gave up a single to Alex Freeland, Chuckie Robinson sac bunted him to second, and Shohei Ohtani plated the first run with a flair single to make it 1-0 Dodgers.

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On the other end, Emmet Sheehan was on the bump for the Dodgers and he bounced back nicely from his last start.

He struck out two in a clean 1st, allowed just a two-out single in the 2nd, and worked around a lead-off walk and sac bunt by inducing a foul out and getting a strikeout.

The Padres did it the easy way in the 4th, as Manny Machado tied the game with a solo shot to make it 1-1.

Emmet got past that, but ran into more trouble in the 5th when he issued a one-out walk and hit Fernando Tatis Jr. in the hand with two down before he was able to get a strikeout to end his outing.

The plug was pulled at that point, as Sheehan was good but had begun to falter a bit: 5 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 84 Pitches.

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By the time he left, he was pitching with the lead, because the walk King issued in the 4th didn’t hurt him but did indicate where his game was going.

The 5th started with a walk of Freeland, but Chuckie’s bunt attempt was too hard to work as a sac. No matter, Shohei drew another walk, then Andy got hit for the second time in the game to load things up. Freddie Freeman then gave the Dodgers the lead by working a nine-pitch walk to force a run in.

Mookie followed by singling to center to drive in two more and make it 4-1.

More credit than normal for that swing since Freddie had just tried to kill him.

That also knocked King out of the game, which worked for the Padres as their pen slammed the door on that rally in the 5th, worked around a lead-off single in the 6th, and also a two-out single in the 7th.

A clean 8th and 9th followed, so the pen had to protect a lead in save range.

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For the Dodgers pen, it was Alex Vesia in the 6th, and he gave up an infield single when he forgot to cover first base. That was costly, as a stolen base followed with one out, and the second out would’ve got Vesia out of the inning. Instead, Will Klein entered and gave up a single to Xander Bogaerts to make it 4-2 Dodgers.

Klein then hit Miguel Andujar with an 0-2 breaking ball to put a pair on, but got a strikeout to prevent further mess.

He continued in the 7th, where he got two outs but had a single sandwiched between. Dave Roberts wasn’t taking chances and brought in Tanner Scott, and he closed the frame emphatically with a three-pitch K.

The 8th started ominously with a lead-off double and then a hit batter that barely grazed protection. Scott then went 3-1 and was on the brink of potential disaster, but fought back for a strikeout and then got a double play on the next pitch to keep things at 4-2 Dodgers.

Dave gave Edgardo Henriquez a test in the 9th, and he got the first out before issuing a walk to bring the tying run to the plate. No matter, the next pitch allowed Mookie to recreate the end of Game 7 to take the series.

Poetic?

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Eric Karros has continued to harp on dumb challenges, and to be fair, he’s not wrong in Pages’ case.

He was also mocking people who think bunting is easy.

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54-30, five wins in their last six, and back to a 104-win pace.

The Dodgers now travel to Sacramento for three games with the Athletics at that minor-league stadium starting at 3:40 PM HT/6:40 PM PT/9:40 PM ET. It’ll be Eric Lauer, in a real unlucky environment for him, up against Gage Jump.

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