The San Diego Padres have lost three games in their current four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Padres will hope to avoid a series sweep and get a win in the final game on Sunday. The team faced the Dodgers in a series earlier this season in April. Unfortunately, they only won one out of the three games played in the home series at Petco Park. The Padres certainly did not improve this time against the Dodgers.
The first game of the series was a tough-luck loss for starting pitcher Joe Musgrove. The Padres lineup was unable to score enough runs to support Musgrove’s solid outing. Musgrove pitched in seven innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He also had 10 strikeouts in the game. Unfortunately, the Padres were unable to score multiple runs despite getting seven total hits.
The Padres lost this game 3-1.
The three runs from the Dodgers came from the bat of third baseman Justin Turner. Turner hit two home runs in the game, which resulted in three RBIs. Meanwhile, the Padres were only able to get one run on seven hits. The only run came from right fielder Nomar Mazara, who had a two-out RBI in the first inning.
The next game of the series was not much better than the previous game. The offense stayed about the same in production, while the pitching got worse in this one. Starting pitcher Blake Snell had a solid outing, which was nice to see since he has been struggling for most of the season. Snell pitched in five innings and only gave up one run on four hits. He also had 12 strikeouts in this game, meaning he had more than two strikeouts per inning. This outing brought his rough ERA down to 5.13.
The game was tied 1-1 going into the sixth inning, but the Padres bullpen proceeded to give up four runs in the next three innings. Relief pitchers Craig Stammen and Tim Hill each gave up two runs and put the game out of reach. The Padres offense could not score enough runs to match, as only two Padres hitters had hits in this game. Left fielder Jurickson Profar and center fielder Trent Grisham each had two hits. Profar hit two doubles while Grisham hit a solo home run in the fifth inning. Unfortunately, the rest of the lineup could not do anything to help. The Padres lost this game 5-1.
The next game of the series was slightly better for the Padres offense, but worse for the Padres pitching.
The Padres had 10 hits, but they could not do much with those hits. They only scored two runs from those 10 hits. Yu Darvish started this game for the Padres, and he struggled early on.
Darvish gave up five runs in the first three innings. The next three innings he pitched were solid, but it was not enough since the Padres lineup was unable to provide much run support for him. He ended up pitching six innings and had a solid 10 strikeouts, but was stuck with the loss in this game. His season record is now 7-4.
The Padres’ record is now 46-34, and the team is still second in the National League West division. Unfortunately, they are now much further behind the Dodgers for first place in the division. The Padres are now 4.5 games behind the Dodgers. However, the Padres still hold the top spot in the NL Wild Card race.
