The Los Angeles Dodgers squandered a four-run lead but were rescued by Mookie Betts delivering what held as a game-winning home run to complete a sweep of the San Diego Padres with their 5-4 victory.
In similar fashion to Saturday night, the Dodgers found early success against the Padres’ starter as they got to Yu Darvish for four runs in the first inning.
Their rally started with Shohei Ohtani and Betts both reaching, which set the table for Freddie Freeman’s 15th home run of the season. Andy Pages later connected for a solo homer with two outs.
The flurry was followed by silence, however, which kept pressure on Tyler Glasnow and eventually the Dodgers’ bullpen.
Tyler Glasnow dominated through the first two innings behind a sharp slider before running into some trouble. A leadoff walk in the third was followed by Freddy Fermin driving a ball to the right-center field gap.
Pages aided Glasnow by throwing out Fermin on his attempt at a double, but the Padres did bring in Jake Cronenworth before the inning ended. Ramón Laureano then hit a solo home run off Glasnow in the fifth inning.
The two runs were all Glasnow allowed, but his effectiveness waned as the start wore on and he completed just five innings.
Anthony Banda pitching on back-to-back days didn’t yield positive results and he was hurt by Teoscar Hernández not being able to get to a fly ball in right field that dropped for an RBI double. The double was the second Banda allowed in three batters faced.
Ben Casparius took over at that point to get the final two outs of the inning. Blake Treinen labored through the seventh and stranded the tying run at third base.
Alex Vesia inherited two runners in scoring position from Alexis Díaz in the eighth inning and allowed the tying run to come across on a groundout with the Dodgers curiously playing their infield at normal depth.
Having gone without a hit in the series up to his leadoff at-bat in bottom of the eighth inning, Betts bailed out the Dodgers bullpen with a solo home run off Padres closer Robert Suarez.
Dodgers sweep details
The Dodgers’ current three-game winning streak is their first since they strung together four consecutive victories from June 29-July 3. The series sweep is the Dodgers’ first since doing so against the Chicago White Sox from July 1-3.
Having already clinched the season series and thus a potential National League West tiebreaker, the Dodgers are now 8-2 against the Padres this year and hold a two-game lead for first place in the division.
The two teams play at Petco Park this weekend for the final time during the regular season.
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