LOS ANGELES — This weekend at Dodger Stadium it is NL West Thunderdome – one first-place team enters, one first-place team leaves.
But for now there are two.
With six strong innings from Clayton Kershaw and three innings of nail-biting relief, the Dodgers ended a four-game losing streak and regained a share of first place in the National League West with a 3-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Friday night.
The Dodgers landed the first blow in the six-games-in-10-days battle in a phone booth between the division rivals.
“It’s a game in August, obviously. It’s not that huge a deal,” Kershaw said trying to downplay the urgency of these matchups. “But the way we were going, it felt like a big game for us and thankful that we got a win.
“It’s gonna be a fun six weeks. The Padres are gonna be right there, we’re gonna be right there. We have a lot of games against them the next 10 days, obviously. You know – the division isn’t won or lost in the next 10 days. But it will make an impact. We know that. It’s just – I don’t know how to say it and not sound cliche, but we just gotta keep playing. There’s just nothing else to do. We can’t put any more or any less on it. Just keep playing the games. And just hopefully our talent and our team will take over, which we know it will.”
Kershaw was up to the moment. He made his only mistake of the night when he left a curveball to Ramon Laureano over the plate in the second inning. Laureano golfed it down the left field line, where it clipped off the outside of the foul pole for a solo home run.
Kershaw walked the next batter, Jose Iglesias, on seven pitches. But he retired the next 10 Padres in order.
“I think he’s built for these big moments. He’s a legend,” outfielder Teoscar Hernandez said. “He helped us stay in the game. He gave up the homer early, but after that, he was like vintage Clayton Kershaw.”
By the time he gave up a second hit (a single to Freddy Fermin in the sixth inning) the Dodgers had given him the lead.
Michael Conforto and Alex Freeland led off the third inning with back-to-back singles. Miguel Rojas squared around to bunt them over but popped it up. Manny Machado came charging in from third base and dove for the soft pop. It glanced off his glove and caromed into foul territory. Everyone was safe and the Dodgers had the bases loaded with no outs.
They used two of those outs to score runs – one on a bases-loaded force out by Shohei Ohtani, another on a sacrifice fly by Mookie Betts. Ohtani was caught stealing to end the inning.
Kershaw nursed the one-run lead through six innings. And that’s all he was asked to do. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled him after the sixth inning despite Kershaw having thrown just 76 pitches and allowing only those two hits.
“I just think that we have to take care of him,” Roberts said. “I think that he could’ve went out there (for the seventh inning). It was my decision to get him out of the game. Where they’re at, in that part of the order (Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Jackson Merrill were due up), we have other guys that have to do their job too.
“So for me, for Clayton to give us six strong innings of one-run baseball, he did his job. And so for me, there was no reason I felt that I needed to push him more.”
Of Kershaw “setting the tone” with six strong innings, Roberts said, “We had the right guy on the mound tonight. I think we all know that.”
The Dodgers’ problem lately, however, has been having the right guy on the mound for the final innings. Against the Padres, Ben Casparius was first up and survived a two-out double by Merrill to put up a scoreless seventh inning.
Hernandez did the relief crew a favor when he hit a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh. But the Dodgers wasted an opportunity to do more, stranding two runners after back-to-back one-out walks.
Alex Vesia gave the run back in the top of the eighth by grazing two Padres batters with pitches and walking Fernando Tatis Jr. to load the bases with one out. Luis Arraez drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but Blake Treinen threw one pitch and got Manny Machado to pop out, stranding the tying and go-ahead runs.
Treinen’s night was done.
“We’re steadfast on not using him for an up-down,” Roberts said of Treinen, who missed most of the season with a strained forearm.
“I just felt that that was the game right there, and we needed him to put that game to bed in the eighth. I felt right there, Blake was our best. Going against their best hitter, their hottest hitter, I felt we needed to use him right there.”
Necessity being the mother of desperation as well, Roberts handed the one-run lead to Alexis Diaz in the ninth. The former All-Star closer turned reclamation project sandwiched two strikeouts around a single by Merrill then Roberts brought in rookie left-hander Jack Dreyer to face pinch-hitter Ryan O-Hearn with the tying run on base.
Dreyer got O’Hearn to fly out for the first save by a Dodgers reliever since Aug. 3. The Dodgers’ last four saves have come from four different pitchers (Casparius, Vesia, Justin Wrobleski and Dreyer).
“We’re due?” Kershaw said when asked why the matchup with the Padres brought out a better game than the Dodgers had managed recently.
“I think that’s just the way it goes sometimes. Baseball is hard. When you play every day, things can spiral pretty quick. So maybe just coming home, having an off day to reset, and playing good games – it just takes one to get going. Hopefully this was it tonight for us.”