{"id":91378,"date":"2025-08-23T14:29:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T14:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91378\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T14:29:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T14:29:14","slug":"dodgers-held-to-three-hits-in-loss-to-padres-falling-back-into-tie-for-first-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91378\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers held to three hits in loss to Padres, falling back into tie for first place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five days ago, the Dodgers<\/a> finally seemed to be building some late-season momentum.<\/p>\n

In the span of a week, however, they have once again squandered any real forward progress.<\/p>\n

Coming off a sweep of the San Diego Padres<\/a> at home last weekend, the Dodgers appeared to be in strong position for the stretch run. They\u2019d built a two-game lead in the National League West. They had the last-place Colorado Rockies up next on the schedule. And even with a trip to San Diego looming after that, they were primed to potentially take a stranglehold in the standings.<\/p>\n

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Instead, the team split its four-game set<\/a> in Denver, giving a game back to the Padres while San Diego took three of four from the San Francisco Giants in the same span.<\/p>\n

Then, in Friday\u2019s series-opener at Petco Park, the Padres punched back in a rivalry the Dodgers had owned for most of this season, winning 2-1<\/a> to draw even for first place in the National League West.<\/p>\n

Read more: News Analysis: The Dodgers have an outfield problem. But do they have the options to fix it?<\/a><\/p>\n

“I think when you’re in it, you don’t really have the time to think about disappointment and what could’ve been,\u201d manager Dave Roberts<\/a> said of so quickly squandering a division lead they worked so hard last weekend to build.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou’ve got to just go out there and deal with what’s going on right now. We’re tied in the standings and we’ve got to win a game tomorrow. There’s just no other way to look at it.”<\/p>\n

Before Friday, beating the Padres (73-56) was the one thing this year\u2019s underwhelming Dodgers team had consistently done well. They had taken eight of the previous 10 matchups. Their sweep at Dodger Stadium last week felt like a statement, one that looked to have the club poised to break out of an extended summer funk.<\/p>\n

But after a disappointing week against the Rockies, the Dodgers (73-56) once again fell flat in front of a sold-out Petco Park crowd. They managed just three hits, and only one before a failed rally in the top of the ninth inning. They got seven productive innings out of Blake Snell<\/a>, yet couldn\u2019t get him off the hook for a standings-swinging loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard for us, not giving him the support he deserved,\u201d outfielder Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> said. \u201cBut it\u2019s baseball. He threw the ball really good today. We didn\u2019t get the job done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rookie infielder Alex Freeland<\/a> hit his first career home run in the third inning, opening the scoring on a hanging sweeper from Yu Darvish. But after that, the veteran Japanese right-hander went on the attack, retiring 10 of the final 11 batters he faced in a dominant six-inning, one-walk, five-strikeout start.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just one of those days you just tip your cap,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said of Darvish, who kept the Dodgers guessing with his unpredictable seven-pitch repertoire. \u201cYou don\u2019t know where to look. You don\u2019t know what pitches to look for. He was using all the pitches today. Hitting the spot, corners really good with all of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snell, meanwhile, started strong in his first outing at Petco Park since leaving the Padres at the end of 2023. Through three innings, he had silenced his former club beneath a barrage of curveballs, changeups and sliders, showing more progress in his fourth start back from a three-month shoulder injury.<\/p>\n

\"Dodgers<\/p>\n

Dodgers starting pitcher Blake Snell delivers during the first inning Friday against the Padres. (Orlando Ramirez \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

“I thought Blake was fantastic tonight,\u201d Roberts said of Snell, who left the ballpark immediately after the game for the birth of his second child. \u201cJust a really stellar performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A turning point, however, arose at the end of the third.<\/p>\n

With Ram\u00f3n Laureano on second with two outs, Snell thought he had struck out Fernando Tatis Jr. on a curveball in the dirt. Tatis and Laureano evidently thought the same, with Tatis briefly starting toward the dugout and Laureano walking casually off second. But at first base, umpire Chris Guccione ruled that Tatis checked his swing. The play was still live. And catcher Will Smith alertly threw to third, where Laureano was hung out to dry.<\/p>\n

That might have ended the inning. But it also meant Tatis was back at the plate to begin the fourth. This time, the Padres star managed to work a walk from what started as an 0-2 count. And from there, the home side built a rally.<\/p>\n

Luis Arr\u00e1ez executed a sacrifice bunt (one of three the Padres executed in an apparent pre-determined game plan). Manny Machado followed with an RBI single. Ryan O\u2019Hearn moved him to third with another base hit. Xander Bogaerts then flipped the score with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-1.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have a lot of different styles. … We can beat the other team in a lot of different ways,\u201d Padres manager Mike Shildt said. \u201cTonight, it was more of an old-fashioned recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snell was excellent the rest of the way, completing seven innings for the first time in his Dodgers career with six hits, two walks and five strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Alas, it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n

Because even after Darvish left the game, the Dodgers\u2019 offense couldn\u2019t claw back.<\/p>\n

Their best opportunity came in the eighth, when hard-throwing Padres deadline acquisition Mason Miller walked Michael Conforto and Freeland to create a jam. With one out, however, Dalton Rushing came to the plate as a pinch-hitter, rolled a ground ball on a 101-mph fastball to the right side, and couldn\u2019t get to first in time to beat out a double play (he was initially called safe, but a Padres challenge overturned the call).<\/p>\n

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The inning ended with Shohei Ohtani<\/a> waiting on deck. And while he came up to lead off the ninth, he watched a towering fly ball die at the warning track.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were fighting,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cTonight was one of those things where good pitching beat good hitting.”<\/p>\n

The Dodgers nonetheless mounted one last rally, recording their first hits since Freeland\u2019s homer on singles from Mookie Betts<\/a> and Freddie Freeman<\/a> against Padres closer Robert Suarez. But with runners on the corners,\u00a0Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0struck out to end the game \u2014 leaving the Dodgers once again on the back foot, just days after they had finally seemed to have found solid ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, we\u2019re fighting for the division, but this one is in the past,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cOne day you have it. Next day you don\u2019t. You just gotta grind through it, and keep playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five days ago, the Dodgers finally seemed to be building some late-season momentum. In the span of a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[34596,1490,49,48,4021,11768,499,511,43812,4237,53778,494,10726,10169,462,10168,51025,53776,53777,12413,473,14556,477,512,482,82,10166,1495,503,34798,28425],"class_list":{"0":"post-91378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-alex-freeland","9":"tag-blake-snell","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-colorado-rockies","13":"tag-dalton-rushing","14":"tag-dave-roberts","15":"tag-dodgers","16":"tag-fernando-tatis-jr","17":"tag-freddie-freeman","18":"tag-luis-arraez","19":"tag-manny-machado","20":"tag-mason-miller","21":"tag-michael-conforto","22":"tag-mlb","23":"tag-mookie-betts","24":"tag-national-league-west","25":"tag-orlando-ramirez","26":"tag-petco-park","27":"tag-ramon-laureano","28":"tag-robert-suarez","29":"tag-san-diego","30":"tag-san-diego-padres","31":"tag-san-francisco-giants","32":"tag-shohei-ohtani","33":"tag-sports","34":"tag-teoscar-hernandez","35":"tag-the-dodgers","36":"tag-will-smith","37":"tag-xander-bogaerts","38":"tag-yu-darvish"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}