Jackson Merrill singled home the go-ahead run in the 11th inning as the San Diego Padres edged the host Los Angeles Dodgers 8-7 on Friday, winning a slugfest that featured a history-making moment for the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani.
The teams combined for eight home runs on the night, six of them in the first three innings. One of the long balls was the 175th of Ohtani’s career, which tied Hideki Matsui’s MLB record for homers by a Japanese-born player.
With two outs in the 11th, Merrill punched a single to left off Dodgers reliever Alex Vesia (0-2), scoring automatic runner Jose Azocar from second base.
Padres closer Robert Suarez (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings.
San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. tied the game 7-7 in the seventh, crushing a slider from Ryan Brasier 413 feet for a two-run shot to dead center.
Three pitches earlier, Xander Bogaerts drove in Merrill on a chopper to third to pull the Padres to within two.
The Dodgers got homers from Ohtani, Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez against Padres right-hander Michael King to go up 7-3 after three innings.
After San Diego’s Manny Machado belted a two-run shot in the top of the first, Ohtani hit his fourth of the year, a 403-foot, opposite-field blast, in the bottom of the inning to slice the deficit in half.
Ha-Seong Kim put the Padres up 3-1 in the second with a solo shot. Muncy’s solo homer and Betts’ three-run blast in the bottom of the second gave the Dodgers a 5-3 lead.
Hernandez sliced a two-run homer over the wall in the right field corner in the third, increasing the margin to four.
Machado and Kim went deep off Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The Padres’ Jake Cronenwerth homered to right-center to cut the Dodgers’ lead to 7-4 in the sixth.
Both starting pitchers got no-decisions. Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325 million deal with the Dodgers in January, worked five innings and allowed three runs on four hits, striking out six with one walk.
King gave up seven runs (four earned) on six hits over five innings, with two walks and four strikeouts.
Betts provided the defensive highlight of the game in the seventh, ranging about 100 feet from shortstop to catch Luis Campusano’s popup along the third base wall before tumbling into the safety netting.
–Field Level Media
