Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers prevailed over the Padres tonight, 8-4, thanks in large part to a new season high in homers. As an added bonus, the Rockies beat the Giants, 2-1, and thus the division lead has now been extended to 7.5 games.
Noted bandbox Petco Park was home to eight home runs tonight, with both offenses extremely homer dependent. Dodgers starter Mike Bolsinger limited the Padres to two hits in his five innings of work, but both hits were home runs. Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer to center to get the Padres started in the first, and Jedd Gyorko added to the total in the third with a questionable (SHOCKING) fan interference homer to left.
Fortunately then, James Shields continued to be a dinger machine, giving up a solo shot to Carl Crawford in the first, and another to Scott Schebler in the second.
Then, with the Dodgers down a run, Corey Seager grounded to first with the bases loaded and one out, and he hit it hard enough that it could’ve been a double play ball. Fortunately, Gyorko threw the ball away to allow a run to score, and that was a result of both Utley being out of the baseline and Gyorko not bothering to touch second base.
GIF: One of these plays was ruled an out. One was ruled safe. #Dodgers #Padres http://t.co/RQANWjmigH
— Ryan Walton (@RyanCPWalton) September 5, 2015
Both managers argued their case but nothing came of it, and the game was tied 3-3.
The homer derby wasn’t over just quite yet though, as Justin Ruggiano gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead with a homer in the sixth. Then Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run blast and Chase Utley then followed with a dinger of his own, extending the lead to 8-3 and putting the game out of reach…
…but not before Brett Wallace teed off against Chris Hatcher for a homer to pull the Padres back to 8-4.
On a positive note, after the bullpen imploded yesterday, they got back on track. Yimi Garcia, J.P. Howell, Hatcher, and Kenley Jansen went four innings of one-run ball, surrendering just two hits and striking out six. It was a nice bounceback after they had been so good for the couple prior weeks.
