The San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 6-4, to hand the National League West leaders a third consecutive loss. What’s more, the Dodgers finished 1-6 on their road trip, have dropped eight of their last nine games and lost three straight series for the first time this season.
Jhoulys Chain largely kept the Dodgers at bay, and managed to halt a rally in the seventh inning to preserve the Padres’ lead. Chacin was perfect through three innings before allowing a leadoff home run to Chris Taylor in the fourth.
More trouble followed as Curtis Granderson reached on Wil Myers’ throwing error, and Justin Turner’s RBI double extended his hitting streak to eight games and gave the Dodgers a lead. Albeit one that was fleeting.
Cody Bellinger led off the seventh with a pop fly to center field that dropped and resulted in a leadoff triple. He then scored on Yasmani Grandal’s sacrifice fly that pulled the Dodgers to within a run of the Padres.
Yasiel Puig doubled and Alex Verdugo reached on an infield single, but the rally came to a grinding halt when Logan Forsythe grounded into a double play.
Fabio Castillo failed to retire any of the four batters faced in the bottom of the seventh, allowing the Padres to load the bases on consecutive singles followed by a walk. Wil Myers’ two-run single provided insurance for San Diego and knocked Castillo out of the game.
Alex Wood was neither dominant nor completely ineffective in his first start since coming off the disabled list. He retired the first two batters faced but wouldn’t get out of the inning unscathed.
Jose Pirela walked, went first to third base on Myers’ single to left, then scored on a wild pitch. Erick Aybar followed a Matt Szczur leadoff double in the fourth with a two-run homer that gave the Padres a 3-2 lead.
Then in the fifth, Pirela hit a solo home run to the second deck in left field to provide San Diego with some breathing room before they eventually pulled away in the seventh inning. The book closed on Wood at six innings, four runs allowed and seven strikeouts against three walks.
Bellinger homered off Brad Hand in the ninth inning, giving him 36 home runs this season to break Mike Piazza’s Dodgers rookie record. Puig legged out an infield single to put the tying run at the plate before Brad Hand could close out the game.
