Emmet Sheehan had a successful return to the mound as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres, 4-3, on a walk-off, pinch-hit home run by Will Smith to clinch a series win and give them the chance at a four-game sweep on Thursday.
Sheehan started his outing with a successful first inning before allowing a run in the second. Jake Cronenworth hit a leadoff double and ended up scoring on a single from Elías Díaz.
But that was all he allowed in his four innings of work, finishing his outing with just the one run on three hits with six strikeouts and no walks. It was exactly what the Dodgers were hoping to see as Sheehan was both efficient and had swing-and-miss stuff.
The Dodgers tied things up in the fifth inning when Max Muncy started them off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly from Andy Pages. After Tommy Edman singled and Hyeseong Kim doubled, Dalton Rushing gave the Dodgers the lead with a two-run single.
In the seventh inning, Muncy worked a walk before Pages was hit by a pitch. Despite the tensions from the previous two nights, Pages kept his cool and took first base.
Dalton Rushing worked a two-out walk to load the bases, but Shohei Ohtani struck out to leave the runners stranded.
Following Sheehan, Justin Wrobleski took over and provided exactly what the team needed up until the ninth inning. He fired four shutout innings while allowing just one hit. striking out three and walking none.
However, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts decided to keep Wrobleski in the game to start the ninth, and things started to go south. Luis Arraez singled and Manny Machado reached on a throwing error by Max Muncy, that also could have been ruled an error on Tommy Edman, who failed to catch the ball for the double play.
Gavin Sheets then followed with a single to load the bases, and the Padres added a run on a sacrifice fly by Jake Cronenworth to make it a 3-2 game. Xander Bogaerts tied the game with an RBI-double with one out, putting two runners in scoring position as well, but Wrobleski was able to escape the inning with the game tied.
In the bottom of the ninth, Smith pinch-hit for Kiké Hernández with one out, and after just missing a home run foul, he hit one over the fence to the opposite field to secure the walk-off victory.
Dodgers creating ground in NL West
With both the San Francisco Giants and Padres losing on Wednesday, the Dodgers are now 4.5 games ahead of second place in the National League West over the Giants and six ahead of the Padres in third. The Arizona Diamondbacks sit nine games out of first, while the Rockies are far below in the cellar at 28.5 games out of first place.
The Dodgers have also overtaken the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets for the most wins in the NL at 46. The Mets lost ground due to a five-game losing streak after building a nice lead over both clubs trailing them.
L.A. is also now on a five-game winning streak.
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