Padres 5, Dodgers 2: No comeback this time, but Eliezer Alfonzo Jr. makes his debut

Chad Moriyama 07/05/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

The story of this game wasn’t baseball, but rather the debut of Eliezer Alfonzo Jr. and everything he’s currently dealing with. In addition to tributes on the hats of him and Miguel Rojas, he also got a standing ovation before his first at-bat.

In terms of the actual game, the Dodgers bats didn’t do much for most of it, and the Padres grabbed a slim lead and then added on later in a 5-2 loss to prevent a four-game sweep.

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Emmet Sheehan started quickly, retiring the first eight batters he faced before issuing a two-out walk in the 3rd. He finished that inning, but then in the 4th he gave up a one-out walk and then first hit in a single to put a pair on. After getting the second out, Sheehan then gave up a groundball single to Jackson Merrill to make it 1-0 Padres before getting the final out there.

Sheehan continued in the 5th with a quickly rising pitch count due to the deep counts he was running, and got into more trouble with a one-out walk and then hustle double.

As he was approaching 100 pitches already, a move to the pen was made: 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K, 96 Pitches.

In relief was Jack Dreyer, and he made that one run for Sheehan stick, as he induced a pop-out, intentionally walked the bases loaded, and got a groundout to prevent disaster.

Dreyer continued with a scoreless 6th, but the game got out of hand when Kyle Hurt entered in the 7th. He issued a lead-off walk, gave up a steal, then a single, and another single (infield variety) to Fernando Tatis Jr. for a run. After finally getting an out, Manny Machado smashed a three-run homer to make it 5-0 Padres just like that.

Not an ideal location for an 0-2 pitch.

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It was that way to that point because the bats had taken the day off for the most part.

In five innings, JP Sears allowed just two walks and a single that were scattered, and the most exciting thing to happen was the early ejections of Padres coaches.

Their pen walked a pair in the 6th but kept things scoreless, thought that didn’t hold in the 7th. A lead-off walk from Teoscar Hernandez and a one-out single from Kyle Tucker set things up, and Alex Freeland singled himself for the first Dodger run. After the second out, it was Shohei Ohtani singling to make it 5-2 Padres before the rally was quieted.

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Back to the Dodgers, it was Paul Gervase finished with two scoreless innings despite giving up two singles, a walk, three stolen bases, and a passed ball. Incredible, really.

Nevertheless, they got just a walk in the 8th and nothing in the 9th.

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Hammer throw was his true calling.

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The Dodgers fall to 59-32 on the year. No big sweep. Disaster.

With that series behind them, the Dodgers now welcome in the Rockies for three games starting at 4:10 PM HT/7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET with Eric Lauer on the bump against Kyle Freeland.

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