By Liz Alper
Photo courtesy @Padres on Twitter
July 8, 2016 (Los Angeles) – The Padres conquered the Dodgers with a shutout win on Andy Green’s birthday last night. Would they do it again tonight? We shall see as Andrew Cashner took the mound against Scott Kazmir for LA.
All-Star Wil Myers started the ball in the first with a single to score Melvin Upton Jr. and the Padres took a 1-0 lead.
But that didn’t last long. Home run threat Justin Turner launched a deep solo shot to center in the Dodgers’ half of the first to tie the game at one. He’s now 6-9 against Cashner. Then it fell apart. Yasiel Puig doubled and Adrian Gonzalez narrowly missed a tag at home to give the Dodgers the go-ahead run, 2-1 LA. Yasmani Grandal launched his 10th home run of the season—one of those bombs where you know it’s gone the minute the ball gets hit—and gave the Dodgers a two-run boost, 4-1.
Upton Jr. gave the Padres a big help with a two-run homer in the second and the Padres were back to within one, 4-3.
But the Dodgers got away again in the third. Grandal hit his second home run of the game—this time for three runs—to give LA a 7-3 lead. Howie Kendrick followed that at-bat with a solo homer. So the Dodgers hit two back-to-back home runs to take an 8-3 lead and 2015 Cashner was back.
When Louis Coleman relieved Kazmir in the fourth, Upton Jr. made him pay on his first pitch with another home run, this time a solo shot to cut the Dodgers’ lead in half, 8-4.
In the Dodgers’ half of the fourth, after a double by Turner, who moved to third on an error, Puig drove him home the rest of the way on a sac fly and made the score 9-4 Los Angeles.
In the fifth with the bases loaded, Adam Rosales hit a sac fly to right, driving in Christian Bethancourt and the Padres trailed by four, 9-5. Brett Wallace hit a single that would’ve been an out, but Gonzalez couldn’t make a play and a run came home. 9-6 Los Angeles.
The bats finally settled down until the seventh when Grandal launched his third—THIRD—homer of the game—LA’s fifth of the game--for a 10-6 Dodgers lead. Grandal hit a solo, two-run and three-run homer in this game. After that, both teams decided they had had enough scoring, a series of 1-2-3 innings followed and the Dodgers took game two 10-6.
The Padres and Dodgers will play game three at 4:15 p.m. tomorrow on Fox, NOT Fox Sports San Diego. Luis Perdomo will go against Brandon McCarthy.
In other Padres news, the team has agreed to a deal with MLB Pipeline’s number two international prospect, 17-year-old left hander Adrian Morejon, pending a physical. Derek Norris left tonight’s game with a left quad contusion.
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