Dodgers 4, Padres 1: Clayton Richard falters

Clayton Richard has looked incredible over his last few starts, but today the big, handsome lefty slipped back toward his baseline. He still put up six innings, which is unsurprising for the ground baller, but the Dodgers hit two bombs off him for four runs. And the Padres offense had nothing to back Clayton up with. The lineup went an embarrassing 6-for-32 while striking out 15 times. The one run they picked up wasn’t even earned.

Clayton’s day started very, very poorly. He opened the bottom of the first with back to back walks to Chris Taylor and Justin Turner. Normally, that’s when he would have induced a couple grounders to shortstop to turn two and get some breathing room. Instead, he hung a fastball right at chest level, and Matt Kemp destroyed it.

The Friars got one of those runs back in the third, thanks in part to Yasiel Puig. Manuel Margot led off the inning and hit a scorching grounder down the first base line. It was an easy double for the speedy Margot, but Puig couldn’t feel it clean, and Manny went to third on the play. With one out, Travis Jankowski started a hit and run to bring the Padres’ lone run across the plate.

It didn’t really affect the deficit. Enrique Hernandez went yard in the bottom half of the third, and that’s the way things stayed.

Jordan Lyles will try to even things up tomorrow. First pitch at 7:10 PM.