Padres 7, Dodgers 4: Yay hits!

After last night’s embarrassing endeavor, the Padres rebounded to beat the Dodgers. Eric Hosmer and Raffy Lopez get a lot of the credit for that, as each hit two-run bombs in tonight’s victory over Los Doyers. Bryan Mitchell was, uh, not good, getting yanked after three runs and 2.1 innings. But the bullpen pulled together, allowing just one run over 6.2 combined innings of work. The defense helped out on their end, turning three double plays to remove runners from the basepaths.

Travis Jankowski got things started on the right foot, leading off the bottom of the first with a triple to center. Hosmer didn’t wait long to bring him home. Kenta Maeda threw his first pitch to Hos right down the middle, and he paid for it.

The lead didn’t last long. Matt Kemp started the first with a homer to cut the lead in half. Joc Pederson followed up with a single, but Chase Utley grounded into a double play to put Mitchell back in the clear. Not that Mitchell made use of that defense; he issued a walk and gave up back to back singles and the game was all tie dup.

Walks continued to be a problem for Mitchell in the third. With one out, he walked Cody Bellinger on four pitches. Bellinger stole second, and once again, Kemp punished the Padres with a single into left to put the Dodgers ahead. That’s when Robbie Erlin took over. He immediately got Pederson to fly out to shallow left field, and Jose Pirela turned a masterful double play. He charged in to make the catch and fired the ball to Hosmer, who tagged Kemp to end the inning.

Franchy Cordero led off the fourth with a walk, and a single and a sacrifice fly brought him all the way around to tie the game. The Dodgers got one more run in the sixth when Kirby Yates hit Chris Taylor with the bases loaded. That lead didn’t last, with Christian Villanueva drawing a walk off Josh Fields before Lopez took him yard.

The Friars added a couple more runs in the eighth, but the bullpen shut down LA in the final three innings to send the series to a rubber match tomorrow. Eric Lauer will have the first pitch at 1:10 PM.