After a subpar series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the Los Angeles Dodgers got back in the win column on Monday in their series opener at Petco Park against the San Diego Padres, earning a convincing 8-2 victory.
Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw took the mound and turn his third straight solid outing, looking like his back issue in completely behind him.
Pitching without an innings restriction for the first time, Kershaw tossed six shutout innings, striking out five while only allowing two hits and one walk. One of those hits was by the opposing pitcher, Luis Perdomo.
For the first time in his career, Kershaw faced his former teammate and good friend, A.J. Ellis. Kershaw got the better of his former batterymate in their two meetings, forcing him to ground out to third and fly out to right.
The Dodgers offense aided Kershaw with a big inning in the fourth against Perdomo. Cody Bellinger doubled to lead off the inning, and that was followed by a walk by Matt Kemp.
Yasmani Grandal drove in the first run of the game against his former team with a double to right to score Bellinger, followed by an RBI-single by Chris Taylor.
Andrew Toles, who was playing in his first game back in the big leagues after being recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City, came up with a big two-run double to put an exclamation point on the inning.
He then showed off his speed, scoring on a groundball to second base by Joc Pederson despite the infield being drawn in to cap off the five-run inning for the Dodgers.
Los Angeles added another run in the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Kemp, scoring Max Muncy who walked and advanced to third on another double by Bellinger. They tacked on two more in the eighth on a two-run single by Justin Turner to make it 8-0.
That was more than enough for the Dodgers bullpen as Erik Goeddel tossed a scoreless seventh and then Caleb Ferguson pitched the final two to complete the victory. He gave up two runs in the ninth on a home run by Wil Myers and an infield single by Freddy Galvis.
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