Slammed Diego.
These pesky rivals from down south staggered away from their weekend keep at Dodger Stadium Sunday with spirits bruised, egos bloodied and Manny Machado flattened.
Canned Diego.
Arriving right here shortly after stealing first place, little brother spent the following three days giving it again to a Dodger staff that met the second whereas the Padres recoiled from it.
Fanned Diego.
It was a sweeping sweep of a sweep, the Dodgers successful their third consecutive sport from the Padres Sunday by a 5-4 margin that doesn’t start to elucidate the distinction between these two groups.
The Dodgers now lead the Nationwide League West by two video games, but it surely appears like 20. Each groups have 38 video games remaining within the season, together with three subsequent weekend in San Diego, however any form of actual problem by the Padres feels fabricated.
The Dodgers are the deeper staff. The Dodgers are the extra targeted staff. The Dodgers are the higher staff.
The ultimate weekend blow was an eighth-inning, game-winning drive into the left-field pavilion by Mookie Betts, however this sequence wasn’t practically that shut.
The Dodgers did every thing proper, and the Padres did every thing dumb.
The Dodgers charged, and the Padres choked.
“Didn’t play in addition to we’d wish to have, and the sequence didn’t go like we wished it to,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt stated. “However … this staff is greater than in a fantastic place.”
That may nonetheless presently be second place, which, after this weekend, looks as if an acceptable spot.
In the meantime, for one of many few stretches on this curious summer time, the Dodgers behaved just like the first-place tenants they’re.
“I don’t suppose anybody in that clubhouse doubted our skills and the way good we may be,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts stated. “Actually, it was simply good to play a very good sequence, begin to end.”
Really, from begin to end. The injury-prone Dodgers starters allowed simply three runs in 17 innings, the much-maligned Dodger bullpen completed with simply three allowed runs in 10 innings, and the Padres had been dangerous sufficient that nothing else mattered.
On Friday, Machado gave the Dodgers a run when he botched a bunt, and later unexpectedly popped out on the primary pitch within the eighth inning with two out and the tying and go-ahead runs on base.
On Saturday, the Padres had been thrown out trying to steal thrice within the first two innings whereas heart fielder Jackson Merrill added to the insanity by dropping a fly ball that price them two runs.
Then on Sunday, the Padres outhit the Dodgers 10-6 however couldn’t get out of their very own method lengthy sufficient to ever pose an actual menace.
Within the third inning, Freddy Fermín bumped into an out on a single to right-center, Andy Pages nailing him by a mile. Then, with a runner on third and two out, Machado swung on the second pitch and grounded out to first.
Two innings later, Machado stranded two extra runners with a groundout, however his humiliation was simply starting. Within the seventh, Machado threw his bat and walked towards first on a strike name. After sheepishly returning to house plate amid a taunting roar from the hostile Dodger Stadium crowd, he flied out with a runner on second.
San Diego’s Manny Machado reacts to a known as strike within the seventh inning Sunday in opposition to the Dodgers.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
Machado wasn’t carried out but. Appropriately, he was the ultimate out of the sport, swinging wildly at an Alex Vesia fastball for a strikeout on a foul tip that left the previous Dodger one for 12 for the weekend.
“We will blink, and I’m fairly assured inside every week or so, we’ll be speaking and be like, ‘Man, Manny’s received eight RBIs within the final 5 days,’ so we’re not involved about it,” stated Shildt, who claimed his star was stung by dangerous calls by house plate umpire Jeremie Rehak. “Sadly, some pitches which are exterior the strike zone received known as on him. Which, once more, is unlucky after they’re not attempting to throw strikes on a regular basis to him. They’re taking their possibilities and to get rewarded on balls which are exterior the zone is somewhat irritating.”
Earlier than the sequence, within the wake of 4 consecutive dispiriting losses, Roberts known as on his staff to point out extra focus and urgency. Their ultimate reply, on a day they might have simply shrugged off after successful the primary two video games of the sequence, got here rapidly and dramatically.
Tyler Glasnow, pitching in his greatest sport as a Dodger, struck out three within the high of the primary en path to eight strikeouts in 5 innings.
Freddie Freeman, proper, celebrates with Shohei Ohtani after hitting a three-run house run within the first inning Sunday in opposition to the Padres.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Occasions)
Then, within the backside of the primary in opposition to the Padres’ Yu Darvish, Shohei Ohtani singled, Betts walked and Freddie Freeman blasted a house run over the right-center area fence. One out later, Pages homered to left and the tone had been set.
“I feel everyone knows who we’re in right here, on this staff and the way good we may be,” stated Freeman. “We simply gotta play good baseball like we did this weekend … we all know who we’re inside. And gotta hold it going.”
Roberts was nearly as good as any of them, doing a masterful job all weekend dealing with his outmanned bullpen, succeeding once more Sunday by listening to his most dependable reliever.
After ending up an eighth inning throughout which the Padres tied the sport on a Jose Iglesias grounder, Vesia was promptly instructed he was carried out for the day, as Justin Wrobleski was scheduled to pitch the ninth.
However Vesia had a greater concept. He instructed Roberts he wished the ball if the Dodgers took the lead within the eighth, and when Betts homered, Vesia was prepared.
“So I instructed Doc, I walked as much as him and stated, ‘Hey, like, if we’re up, I would like it.’” Vesia recalled. “He was like, ‘OK, you bought it.’ Certain sufficient, Mook, bang, homers. Candy, let’s go.”
Candy certainly. Vesia’s hitless ninth was symbolic of a bullpen that spent the weekend making each large pitch … whereas the Padres missed each large pitch.
“It’s the dawg, proper?” stated Vesia. “We nonetheless have that. That doesn’t simply go away. Each single considered one of us, we’re leaning on one another. And we all know as a bunch how good we’re.”
So, too, do the Padres.
Accomplished Diego.
