It was not off the bat of Manny Machado but a first-inning home run put the Los Angeles Dodgers in a deficit for a third straight game, and while they rallied yet again, the San Diego Padres won 8-5 in walk-off fashion thanks to Hunter Renfroe’s pinch-hit grand slam.
After hitting three home runs through the first two games of the series, Machado went hitless in four at-bats. The most costly of which was lining out against Pedro Baez in the eighth inning.
Franmil Reyes did the damage of Kenta Maeda in the first inning, and a two-out walk in the second came back to cost him as Francisco Mejia followed with an RBI triple. Walks hurt Maeda again in the fourth inning, as he put Eric Hosmer and and Wil Myers on with one out.
Greg Garcia extended the Padres’ lead with an RBI double, and Meji’s sacrifice fly put the Dodgers in a 4-0 hole.
Even without Cody Bellinger in the lineup for a second consecutive game, that was hardly insurmountable. Coincidentally, a walk is also what led to Nick Margevicius’ undoing.
He’d previously stranded a pair of runners in the first inning, got out of a bases-loaded jam in the third, and retired three in a row after Chris Taylor led off the fourth with a double.
Margevicius Corey Seager aboard with two outs in the fifth inning, then allowed a base hit to David Freese. Max Muncy atoned for leaving the bases full earlier in the game by driving a three-run home run to nearly the same identical spot in right field as his dramatic blast on Saturday.
Muncy later was at the center of the Dodgers completing their comeback as he led off the eighth inning with a walk despite falling behind in the count 0-2. Robbie Erlin’s second pitch to Taylor was promptly lined a go-ahead, two-run home run to left field.
The homer was Taylor’s second of the series, which is an encouraging sign considering his slump to start the season. “I think he’s getting his ‘A’ swing off more consistently,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said over the weekend. “With the homer [Saturday] and just some of the swings he took, he’s in a better place.”
After Eric Hosmer led off the ninth inning with a base hit, the Padres used bunt singles by Manuel Margot and Wil Myers to load the bases against Kenley Jansen. He nearly worked the high-wire act but surrendered a pinch-hit grand slam to Hunter Renfroe with two outs.
