The Los Angeles Dodgers opened their final home series of the 2026 season by shutting out the San Diego Padres.
The Dodgers have now won 15 of their previous 18 games as they move closer to clinching a top seed in the National League postseason, with their magic number now at just one to secure the first-round bye.
The Dodgers previously took three of four in July when the Padres last visited L.A. The Boys in Blue have already won the season series (8-3) and since 2011, have won 15 of the last 16 season series against San Diego, with the exception being 2024.
Both teams enter the series hot as they held the best records in baseball in September thus far, with L.A. (15-5) moving just by San Diego (14-5) in the month.
Dodgers 7, Padres 0: key takeaways
Johnny Wholestaff shuts down Padres
The Dodgers shut out the Padres by using eight different pitchers in the scheduled bullpen game, starting with Brock Stewart.
After Stewart, the Dodgers used Justin Wrobleski and Blake Treinen each for one inning, before Roki Sasaki made his return to the mound after being activated earlier in the day.
Sasaki had to shake off some rust and allowed two hits, but he also looked healthy and struck out two in his scoreless inning.
Edwin Díaz followed Sasaki and also looked great. He should have struck out the side, but a missed call that the Dodgers did not challenge limited him to just two strikeouts and a weak groundout.
Kyle Hurt was the only pitcher to throw multiple innings as he tossed two while allowing just one hit and striking out two. The Dodgers likely pushed him more as he’s the most logical choice to be sent back to Triple-A on Wednesday when Tarik Skubal returns.
Alex Vesia took the eighth inning with a pair of strikeouts, and Jack Dreyer pitched the final inning to close it out.
In total, the Dodgers’ bullpen pitched nine innings, allowing no runs on five hits with 10 strikeouts and two walks. It was their 13th shutout of the season and second time using eight different pitchers to do so.
Freddie Freeman leads offensive charge
Through the first five batters of the game, the Dodgers’ offense looked like it would have a tough day against Michael King, but then things changed quickly.
With two outs in the second inning, Teoscar Hernández singled, Josue De Paula singled, and then Andy Pages was hit by a pitch in his first at-bat since breaking his left hand after being hit by a pitch one month ago.
With the bases loaded, Tommy Edman and Mookie Betts each worked a walk to drive in two runs. Freddie Freeman then rolled a single through the left side of the infield to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.
The Dodgers again scored with two outs in the fourth inning after Betts hit a ground-rule double and scored on a single from Freeman, who ended up driving in three of the runs in this game.
Edman slugged a two-out solo home run in the sixth inning to extend the Dodgers’ lead to six. It should have been their seventh run, but Josue De Paula was called out at the plate trying to score on a sacrifice fly. Although he should have been safe, the Dodgers lost their challenge in the first inning.
In the seventh, Will Smith homered to bring in that seventh run. It was also the first run of the game that was scored with less than two outs in the inning.
If you love our reporting, choose DodgerBlue.com as a preferred source on Google.
