The Dodgers (73-56) mustered only three hits on the night (two of those were in the ninth inning) to waste a solid start from Blake Snell. After the 2-1 series opener loss, they fell back into a tie with the Padres (73-56) for first place in the NL West.
Snell returned to Petco Park to face his former team and pitched a seven-inning gem. Other than allowing a couple of runs on sacrifices in the fourth inning, Snell looked in vintage form.
Old friend Yu Darvish also looked like he was in his prime again against his former team. Darvish utilized his plethora of pitches in his repertoire to shut down the Dodgers offense. He only allowed one hit, the home run to Alex Freeland, over six innings of work.
Alex Freeland crushed a Darvish sweeper 106.3-mph off the bat in the top of the third for his first major-league home run. That was pretty much the only offensive highlight for the Dodgers in the series opener besides a two-hit failed rally in the top of the ninth.
Ramón Laureano ran the Padres out of the bottom of the third inning after Fernando Tatis Jr. checked his swing at a two-strike, two-out curveball from Snell. That’s five outs on the bases by the Padres against the Dodgers in the last week.
The Padres were playing small ball in the series opener to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth. They used two sacrifices to take a 2-1 lead. A leadoff walk, a Luis Arraez sac bunt, and a Manny Machado lead-tying hit made it 1-1. Ryan O’Hearn singled, and Xander Bogaert brought in the second run of the inning for San Diego with a sac fly.
Flamethrower Mason Miller came in to hold the one-run lead for the Padres, but he looked erratic and walked two batters. His defense behind Miller helped him preserve the one-run lead despite not looking sharp at all.
The Dodgers finally had their first threat of the game, but Dalton Rushing grounded into an inning-ending double play – with Shohei Ohtani on deck.
In the ninth, Ohtani hit a ball deep, but not deep enough. Mookie Betts collected the second hit of the night for the Dodgers, a one-out single against Robert Suarez. Suarez struck out Smith. Freddie Freeman extended the inning with a base hit to right field, but Teoscar Hernández struck out to strand Mookie and the tying run at third.
Home run: Alex Freeland (1)
WP — Yu Darvish (3-3): 6 IP, 1 hit, 1 run, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts (74)
LP — Blake Snell (3-2): 7 IP, 6 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts (97 pitches)
S — Robert Suarez (34): 2 hits, 2 strikeouts
The Dodgers and Padres go at it again an hour earlier Saturday (5:40 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA, FS1), with Tyler Glasnow (1-1, 3.12 ERA, 1.145 WHIP) starting against Nestor Cortes (1-2, 5.87 ERA, 1.652 WHIP).