Yasmani Grandal, Adrian Gonzalez and Corey Seager each hit a home run to lead the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 9-2 rout of the San Diego Padres. With their win, the Dodgers clinched home-field advantage throughout the National League Championship Series.
What’s more, their 56 home wins this season broke a Los Angeles franchise record. The 1980 and 2015 clubs were tied for the lead with 55 wins. Grandal’s three-run home run in the fifth inning came on the back of consecutive walks by Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger with two outs.
The homer was Grandal’s 22nd of the season and his second in the past three games. The Dodgers padded their lead in the bottom of the sixth, behind a pinch-hit double by Kiké Hernandez and RBI single from Seager. The RBI was Seager’s first since Sept. 15.
In the seventh inning, Adrian Gonzalez went opposite field for his third home run of the season. Gonzalez also collected a double on the night. Seager’s three-run homer, also in the seventh, put the game well out of reach.
Yasiel Puig went 1-for-3 with a walk and strikeout in his return from two games in which he was benched. Justin Turner, who missed four games due to a combination of a sore right hand and illness, was 1-for-3, also with a walk.
The Padres squandered one-out singles in the first, second and third innings, a leadoff double in the fourth, and leadoff base hit in the sixth. Alex Wood pitched to contact throughout the night and didn’t record his first strikeout until his final batter faced.
Wood limited the Padres to just two runs — with each coming in the fifth inning. The first was on Christian Villanueva’s sinking line drive to right field that was initially ruled a single and saw Villanueva thrown out at second base by Yasiel Puig.
However, replay review overturned the call and Villanueva was awarded a game-tying home run on fan interference. Then with two outs in the inning, Hunter Renfroe golfed a solo home run over the center-field fence to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
Wood improved to 16-3 this season with a 2.72 ERA. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said prior to the game the club had not formally decided whether the southpaw will be a starter or reliever come the postseason.
