Padres outmatched by Dodgers with nine run inning

SAN DIEGO – Just when things started to look like the San Diego Padres found a resurgence after winning four in-a-row against two of the best teams in league, they run into a mack truck-like force called the Los Angeles Dodgers.   

On Saturday in front of Petco Park's 34th sell-out of the season (45,159), the Padres found themselves in an ugly one-sided shellacking, losing 15-3.  

Just one day ago, the Padres felt like they found their groove, knocking off the Dodgers in the opening match of the weekend series. Fast forward to now, it makes it all worthwhile how uneven these two rosters are currently at the halfway point of the season.    

Despite the performance displayed tonight, it was just one game. They'll have many other opportunities to make up for this game (considering in five days they'll meet up for the first time in Los Angeles). There's still a chance for them to win the series tomorrow in the rubber match game. 

Even with a tough performance, they have to wipe it clear from their head.     

Before the game, the Padres had left-hander Kyle Hart start the game instead of Randy Vásquez to face a lefty dominate Dodgers lineup.

Hart started the opening frame by setting down the top part of the Dodgers lineup in eight pitches. He pitched the second inning but didn't submit similar results, giving up a run, two hits and a walk on 28 pitches. 

Max Muncy connected on a splitter in the middle of the zone to right field, and courtesy of a missed Fernando Tatis Jr. sliding grab, stretched around the bases for a triple. Three pitches later, Tommy Edman hit an RBI double over the head of Jackson Merrill to make 1-0.

Vásquez entered the game at the start of the third

Gavin Sheets, who only had one hit in his career against Yamamoto, tied the game during the fifth with a first pitch four-seam fastball right down broadway for a lead-off home run to center field.  

Los Angeles quickly answered with an explosive nine run top half of the sixth inning, including three home runs (two back-to-back by Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing), five extra base hits, two walks and field error by Will Wagner. The inning also included the first cycle of the season for the Dodger, which is now the 10th time a ball club has done so.  

The inning started with a double by Freddie Freeman and scored on an error by Wagner, Edman tripled to score Muncy. Tucker and Rushing combined forced Vásquez to throw 15 pitches, ending in back-to-back home runs to make it 6-1. Vásquez would end his night with a single and a walk to Alex Freeland and Shohei Ohtani, setting up Ron Marinaccio with two inherited runners.

He would start his outing by giving up a walk to Andy Pages and an RBI ground to Freeman to extend the deficit to 7-1. Three pitches later, Mookie Betts would send a sweeper to 402 ft to center field for a three-run blast. San Diego's long lasting nightmare ended on a fly out by Max Muncy.  

Vásquez was charged with five earned runs and the other four split with Marinaccio were ruled unearned. 

The Padres got two runners on base following a walk by Samad Taylor and a single by Merrill. Sheets earned his second RBI with a line drive single to right, but it would be the only run they would score in the inning. 

San Diego generated some traffic on the bases in the seventh with a single and a walk by Wagner and Freddy Fermin. Tatis Jr. singled on a 0-2 count for an RBI single to lower the deficit to 10-3, and Taylor drew his second walk to load the bases. But the Padres failed to capitalize on the opportunity after the Dodgers switch from relievers Kyle Hurt to Alex Vesia, who struck out Merrill and grounded Manny Machado into a force out to end the frame. 

Sunday's finale of the three game series will start at 1:10 p.m. The starting pitchers will be right-hander Michael King (5-6, 3.33 ERA) and right-hander Emmet Sheehan (3-5, 5.32 ERA). 

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