Before the San Diego Padres started a six-game homestand Monday night against Atlanta, manager Craig Stammen referred to it as a fun challenge.
The first half of it was all sorts of fun. A 5-2 win Wednesday night completed a three-game sweep of the Braves that saw San Diego get timely hitting, a couple of well-pitched games from its starters and excellent work from the bullpen.
Now comes the tough part — doing it against their National League West nemeses, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The teams open a three-game series on Friday night.
Wednesday night’s victory might have been the best win of the year for the Padres. They came in with a thin pitching staff after using seven pitchers during a 7-6, 10-inning victory on Tuesday night. Top setup man Adrian Morejon and closer Mason Miller were unavailable after running up high pitch counts in the series’ first two games.
It didn’t matter. Left-hander JP Sears fired 5 2/3 effective innings in his first major league start of the year, while David Morgan, Wandy Peralta and Jason Adam followed with 3 1/3 scoreless innings out of the ‘pen. Adam got his second save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
“We played a lot of good baseball, a lot of good team baseball,” first baseman Ty France said.
France was a big part of the offense, taking part in three of the team’s four rallies that led to runs. He led off the third with his ninth homer, lined a sacrifice fly to right in the fourth and then started the sixth with a double before coming home on Samad Taylor’s two-run single.
Walker Buehler (4-3, 3.96 ERA) faces his old Los Angeles teammates for the second time in his career. He gave up three runs in 4 2/3 innings last year in his first game against the Dodgers while pitching for Boston.
In his most recent start, Buehler allowed a run in 5 1/3 innings Saturday during San Diego’s 6-4, 10-inning win at Texas.
Los Angeles counters with Roki Sasaki (3-4, 4.76), who’s coming off a no-decision in Friday night’s 6-5 home win over Baltimore. Sasaki yielded four hits and three runs over 5 2/3 innings, walking one and whiffing six. This will be his first outing against San Diego.
Halfway through their 162-game slate, the Dodgers boast the majors’ best record at 52-29 after polishing off a three-game sweep of Minnesota with a 4-3 win Wednesday night. Shohei Ohtani fanned eight over six innings and Mookie Betts walloped his 300th career homer in support of him.
Los Angeles hasn’t pitched well in the last 17 games without starting catcher Will Smith (neck), posting a 4.80 team ERA. But it’s gone 11-6 largely because its star-studded lineup has acted the part.
Dalton Rushing’s work in Smith’s place has come under question lately. He and Ohtani weren’t close to being on the same page early Wednesday night, leading to Ohtani calling his pitches for the last four innings.
Teammates and coaches were seen talking with Rushing in the dugout after Los Angeles gave up three runs in the second. But manager Dave Roberts said one thing remains clear with Smith on the injured list.
“Dalton’s our starting catcher,” Roberts said.
–Field Level Media
