The Los Angeles Dodgers broke out the bats in an 8-2 win over the San Diego Padres on Sunday to avoid being swept at Petco Park and pull back into a tie for first place in the National League West.
Unlike the previous two games when they mustered just one hit through the first seven innings, the Dodgers offense went right to work against Nick Pivetta in the series finale.
The first three baserunners reached safely and the Dodgers took an early 1-0 lead on Teoscar Hernández’s sacrifice fly. Of course, they would’ve had three more runs if not for Ramon Laureano robbing Hernández of a grand slam.
L.A. still wound up hitting four home runs in the game, including two from Freddie Freeman. The team also drew four walks and saw more pitches in what was a much improved game plan on all fronts.
“I think it’s just more sometimes a couple things go your way and you get some confidence going,” Freeman answered when asked what allowed the Dodgers to have better at-bats compared to the two previous nights.
“Getting those guys on the first inning and scoring was huge. Even though we could’ve gotten more, just getting one run across was a big boost for us coming off the last couple of games where we hadn’t gotten a couple runs.”
The Dodgers’ lack of offensive consistency has been a talking point in recent weeks but they certainly looked like their normal selves on Sunday.
Though as much as the Dodgers have struggled against multiple opponents, Freeman noted the quality of the Padres’ pitchers.
“This pitching staff is a playoff pitching staff. When you’re in the playoffs, it’s really hard to get three hits in a row off guys of this caliber,” he said. “To get a walk, work counts, get guys on and then you hit the home run, that’s kind of how it has to go.
“You saw the first game for them, getting three hits in a row off Blake Snell is incredibly hard to do. They put three sac bunts down, so I think you saw a different brand of baseball from both sides in this series. You try to win a game, and it’s very hard against the quality pitching that was thrown this series on both sides.
“For us to come out here and execute as an offense way better than we did the last couple of days, that’s a big boost for us.”
Freddie Freeman hits two home runs
Freeman’s first home run on Sunday tied the game in the sixth inning, and he later added a two-run blast that extended the Dodgers’ lead to 7-2.
“I just think overall it was better,” Freeman said of the Dodgers’ offensive approach. “We had a better plan, executed it better, I thought the outs were better today.
“When you get the starter to throw 20-plus pitches in the first inning, we would like to knock him out before six innings. Overall, he got to six innings, so that kind of irks us a little bit but I thought we did a better job than the last couple days.”
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