Austin Barnes helped the Los Angeles Dodgers put some of their struggles against Yu Darvish to bed and Max Scherzer was dominant in a 4-0 win that completed a series sweep of the San Diego Padres.
Darvish went six innings in his return from the 10-day injured list and initially retired the first six batters faced. Billy McKinney’s leadoff walk in the third inning wound up sparking a bit of a rally for the Dodgers as Barnes followed with a two-run home run.
Doubles by Trea Turner and Corey Seager extended the Dodgers’ lead to 3-0 before Darvish could get out of the inning. L.A. tacked on another run in the fourth when AJ Pollock’s triple was cashed in by Cody Bellinger on a sacrifice fly.
While the Dodgers failed to add to their lead from there, Scherzer provided them with a quality start and needed relief for the bullpen. He also was perfect through two innings before the Padres got their first baserunner on a Victor Caratini double with one out in the third.
Scherzer benefitted from being at the bottom of the lineup as he got Darvish swinging, but then also struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. to escape the threat. Scherzer added to the Dodgers’ success against Tatis and Manny Machado during the first two games of the series by holding them to a combined 0-for-6 with four strikeouts.
San Diego looked to scratch again in the fifth inning when Trent Grisham’s leadoff double was followed by Scherzer hitting Jurickson Profar. He came back to strike out Ha-Seong Kim and benefitted from Justin Turner making a nice play to his left for the start of an inning-ending double play.
Scherzer wound up pitching into the eighth inning and came out after collecting a 10th strikeout on his 104th pitch of the game. Shane Greene recorded the final out of the inning and Joe Kelly handled the ninth.
Dodgers roster crunch
Matt Beaty and Gavin Lux were optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City so the Dodgers could reinstate Mookie Betts from the IL and recall Darien Núñez.
Manager Dave Roberts said Beaty and Lux simply were affected by a ‘roster crunch’ and the team remained confident in both players.
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