The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres faced off in the series rubber match on Sunday afternoon after splitting the first two games.
As expected, the Dodgers continued their excellent play this season and took the series from the Padres to increase their lead in the National League West to 10 games.
The Dodgers and Padres are also set to play again in early July to complete a stretch against each other of seven games in 10 days.
Dodgers 4, Padres 2: key takeaways
Mookie Betts leads Dodgers offense
Mookie Betts continued his hot hitting and finished the game going 2-for-4 with two RBI. He had the most important hit of the game, which came in the fifth inning and proved to provide the game-winning run.
The inning started off with walks from Alex Freeland and Shohei Ohtani before Andy Pages was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. Freddie Freeman battled and walked on the ninth pitch of his at-bat to put the Dodgers up 2-1.
Then Betts followed with the two-run single that gave the Dodgers a 4-1 lead.
The Dodgers scored their first run of the game in the third inning with some small ball. Freeland singled, Chuckie Robinson bunted him over to third, and Ohtani singled home the first run of the game.
The Dodgers did have the timely hitting, but not many opportunities. They only had five hits and four walks while striking out nine times.
Emmet Sheehan bounces back
Emmet Sheehan was back on the mound in what Dodgers manager Dave Roberts called a “good test” for the young starter, given his struggles this season. Roberts also called on Sheehan “to be better” moving forward, as he comes off the worst outing of his season.
His last time out, Sheehan threw just 3.1 innings while allowing six earned runs on eight hits with four strikeouts and three walks. But against the Padres, Sheehan stepped up to the challenge, improving across the board.
The right-hander tossed 5 innings of one-run ball while allowing just two hits, striking out five and walking two. The only run he allowed was on a solo home run by Manny Machado in the fifth inning.
Dodgers bullpen closes it out
Once Sheehan was out of the game, the Dodgers bullpen was able to protect the lead with some aggressive managing from Roberts.
Alex Vesia was the first to enter and allowed a leadoff single before recording the next two outs. He was replaced by Will Klein, who allowed a single that scored the second run for the Padres.
But from there, the bullpen didn’t allow another run. Klein recorded the first two outs of the seventh before Scott took over and stranded a runner at first.
Scott also pitched the eighth and ran into some trouble with a leadoff double and hit by pitch, but he struck out the next hitter and then recorded a double play to end the threat.
Edgardo Henriquez was given the save opportunity and earned his first one of the year.
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