As far as the San Diego Padres are concerned, the main task this weekend isn’t necessarily making the National League West a race again by sweeping the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers.
“Keep stacking wins however we can get them,” first baseman Ty France said. “The good thing is we’re playing good baseball right now.”
San Diego certainly did that in a 7-1 win during Friday night’s series opener, giving the Padres four wins in the first four games of a six-game homestand against first-place teams. They swept the three-game series against the Atlanta Braves before the Dodgers came to town.
A patient approach offensively again paid off for the Padres as they coaxed nine walks from five Los Angeles pitchers, cashing in three for runs. Two scored on France’s three-run homer in the second and another one rode home in a four-run eighth that blew open a close game.
San Diego has drawn a whopping 26 walks so far on the homestand.
“Keep the good feelings going, keep the good swings going, play baseball the right way,” manager Craig Stammen said. “We’ve been doing a great job on defense. We’re doing a great job on base running. Bullpen’s been crushing it.”
So has France, who homered for the second straight game on Friday and now has 10 with two games to play before reaching the season’s halfway point. Injuries to teammates and his good form have propelled him into an everyday role.
San Diego’s scheduled starter is right-hander Randy Vasquez (6-5, 4.17 ERA), who will try to turn things around after a rough outing on June 19 in a 9-7 loss at Texas. Handed a 5-0 lead before throwing a pitch, Vasquez yielded six in the Rangers’ half of the first and left after 3 1/3 innings, eight hits and seven runs. He’s 0-2 with a 4.58 earned run average in four career games against the Dodgers.
Los Angeles will start Yoshinobu Yamamoto (7-5, 2.65), who suffered a 3-2 loss on June 20 against Baltimore in his last start. Yamamoto permitted three runs off six hits and two walks in six innings while striking out six. He’s 1-3 with a 4.97 ERA in five career starts against San Diego.
After starting a nine-game road trip by sweeping Minnesota, the Dodgers hurt themselves on both sides of the ball to start the weekend. Besides control issues, they also hit into three double plays and left the bases loaded in the sixth when they trailed just 3-1.
Kyle Tucker, returning to the lineup after missing two games with back spasms, hit a harmless fly ball to center to end that threat. Tucker has struggled, however, hitting only .232 with six homers. He has driven in 40 runs, however.
Manager Dave Roberts hopes the brief break could serve as a “mental reset” for the player whose $60 million salary this year trails only teammate Shohei Ohtani in average annual value in the majors.
“There were some things that they were working on, as far as the mechanics side, before the back went out,” Roberts said of Tucker. “I think we got the mental reset and also physically. He’s in a good spot.”
–Field Level Media
