Dodgers 6, Padres 3: Another comeback ensures a winning season at least

The Dodgers mounted another comeback to beat the Padres tonight, 6-3, that coming after squandering a bunch of chances and having fly balls fall short on the warning track. Whenever they look dead in the water, there’s usually a crooked number lurking somewhere.

Most importantly, at least to the predictions of some, .500 is no longer a possibility.

——

Hyun-Jin Ryu didn’t have his best today, as he labored through five innings on 108 pitches. Ryu surrendered runs in three consecutive innings in the third, fourth, and fifth, but managed to avoid disaster, giving up only one in each on seven hits and two walks.

While he didn’t have it today, he battled to keep the Dodgers in the game.

The offense got off to a quick start in the first, with Chris Taylor starting things with a walk and a Corey Seager single putting runners at the corners. Justin Turner then hit a sacrifice fly to right to get the Dodgers on the board. However, not much else happened for a while, as the Dodgers continued to hit fly ball after fly ball to the warning track that didn’t get out and also stranded a small island of runners, making this appear to be heading to a frustrating conclusion.

Then the sixth inning happened, where Yasmani Grandal started it with a walk, then Chase Utley doubled and Yasiel Puig drew a beautifully worked walk to load the bases with nobody out. The Dodgers seemed on the verge of blowing another chance, but Seager drilled a 3-2 pitch into right for a single. That scored two runs and tied the game, and Seager then got caught in an abbreviated rundown, which allowed Puig to break from third and make it in just under a shoddy throw.

The Dodgers then added insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings behind solo shots from Cody Bellinger and CT3, respectively.

From there, the bullpen that has been taking a lot of heat recently took over and quieted the noise at least for a day. Tony Watson pitched a 1-2-3 sixth inning, notching a strikeout and generally looking good. Brandon Morrow followed in the seventh, and while he issued a two-out walk, there was nothing more than that as he ended the inning with a strikeout. Pedro Baez was tasked with the eighth and got a strikeout in the frame, but he also allowed a two-out triple. Luckily, like Morrow there was nothing more to follow and the scoreless run of the pen was intact.

Kenley Jansen was then brought in to get the save, as expected. Unexpectedly, he gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning. No matter, he got an infield pop-up and then struck out the next two batters to ensure the win.

Things are good.

——

That game didn’t go without weirdness, as in the ninth Utley was ejected for … I didn’t know what reason.

All of this was apparently because he asked the umpire to move.

Chase Utley on his 9th inning ejection #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/7bnTOUzpsR

— Michael J. Duarte (@michaeljduarte) August 13, 2017

——

The Dodgers are now 82-34 in 2017 and 49-14 at home. The Rockies lost and the Diamondbacks won, which means they’re tied for second in the NL West … 17 games back. The Astros lost as well, so the lead for the best record in the majors is 11 games.

The series will be on the line tomorrow at 10:10 AM HST/1:10 PM PST/4:10 PM EST when Kenta Maeda (3.69 ERA/3.80 FIP/3.89 DRA) and Luis Perdomo (4.81 ERA/4.19 FIP/5.69 DRA) matchup.