by Megan Garcia
A stalled Dodger offense shifted back into drive on Sunday. The Dodgers’ 8–2 win over the Padres now has them tied again with San Diego for first place in the National League West.
A five-run seventh inning — keyed by a three-run home run by Dalton Rushing that broke a 2–2 tie and a two-run home run from Freddie Freeman — helped the Dodgers salvage the series after dropping the first two games.
Freeman hit two home runs in the game, including a sixth-inning homer that tied the score at 2–2.
“You saw a different brand of baseball from both sides in the series,” Freeman said. “You’re trying to win a game, and it’s very hard against the quality of pitching that was thrown in this series on both sides. For us to come out here and execute as an offensive way better than we did the last couple of days, that’s a big boost for us.”
Mookie Betts had three hits and Shohei Ohtani hit a solo home run in the ninth inning — his 45th of the year.
“(The Padres) certainly had a lot of momentum coming into today. For our guys to find a way to will ourselves to salvage the series and finish in the standings tied is a good thing.” Dave Roberts said.
The Dodgers came into the game with only two runs, five hits and two at-bats with runners in scoring position in the first two games of the series.
They had nine hits on Sunday.
The Dodgers loaded the bases in the first inning against San Diego starter Nick Pivetta and nearly got a grand slam off the bat of Teoscar Hernández. Hernández was robbed of the homer and the Dodgers settled for a run-scoring sacrifice fly.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto was strong against the Padres in six innings. He allowed two earned runs while striking out six hitters and walking two batters.
The Dodgers went 9–4 against the Padres this regular season.
The Dodgers get the offense to salvage San Diego Series was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.