Playing without their manager who was serving a one-game suspension for his role in a benches-clearing incident, the Los Angeles Dodgers remained perfect in four games at Petco Park this season by thumping the San Diego Padres, 8-0.
It didn’t take long for the Dodgers to put Dillon Overton in an early jam, as Chris Taylor worked a walk to open the game and Corey Seager followed with a base hit. However, the left-hander nearly got out of the jam by retiring the next two batters.
But hitting Austin Barnes with a pitch to load the bases ultimately led to a run scoring on Logan Forsythe’s infield single. Forsythe doubled in the fourth inning but it resulted in Barnes being thrown out at home plate.
Though, it was Forsythe who later scored on Rich Hill’s base hit that skipped off Erick Aybar’s glove and rolled into shallow center field. The Dodgers struck again in the fifth, behind back-to-back home runs from Seager and Justin Turner.
The proverbial rout was on once Taylor launched a grand slam in the seventh inning to extend the Dodgers’ lead to 8-0. The home run was Taylor’s 10th this season and third grand slam. For the Dodgers, it was their seventh grand slam, which leads the Majors.
Spotted with an early lead that only continued to increase, Hill not only picked up where he left off in terms of work from the mound, he chipped in with the aforementioned RBI and first career multi-hit game. Hill’s run-scoring single in the fourth was his first hit since June 19, 2009.
While there were moments where Hill appeared to wince or grimace, he scattered four hits and matched a career high with 11 strikeouts over seven shutout innings. It was back-to-back outings in which the southpaw went seven frames.
In his last three starts, Hill has pitched a combined 19 innings, allowed four runs on 12 hits, issued four walks, and collected 26 strikeouts.
Brock Stewart backed Hill’s effort with two perfect innings out of the bullpen in what was his third appearance this season for the Dodgers. Each of Stewart’s games have been multi-inning efforts.
Dating back to the series opener, Forsythe went 8-for-8 with a walk before his streak was snapped on a strike out in the eighth inning.
The Dodgers improved to 7-1 against the Padres this season, outscoring them 63-18 in the head-to-head meetings.
