The Padres bats came alive again at Petco Park, proving they have the ability to overcome a big deficit. The problem is they keep having big deficits to overcome.
The Dodgers blitzed San Diego starter Ian Kennedy on Saturday night, jumping out to leads of 3-0, 6-3, 8-3 and 10-3 en route to an 11-8 win. Kennedy was basically making his first start of the season. He left the Padres home opener on Opening Week with a hamstring injury in the 3rd inning.
Kennedy gave up three runs in the first, a pair coming on an Andre Ethier home run. Ethier was in the starting lineup because Yasiel Puig is nursing a hamstring injury.
San Diego’s offense got Kennedy off the hook once with a 3-run first inning of their own. Facing Dodgers starter Brandon McCarthy, Wil Myers hit his first career leadoff home run and Justin Upton smacked a 2-run, opposite field shot to score Matt Kemp and hit the reset button.
But in the 2nd inning, Kennedy missed with a pitch to the wrong guy. Adrian Gonzalez hit a towering 3-run home run to right field, putting L.A. up 6-3. It was the 6th home run Gonzalez has hit in five games against the Padres this year.
Kennedy stayed in the game and made it to the 5th inning, where Howie Kendrick drove a 2-run shot over the wall in straightaway center to put the Dodgers up 8-3. That’s when Padres manager Bud Black went and got Ian, who allowed eight runs on eight hits on the night.
Lefty Chris Rearick relieved Kennedy, and didn’t fare much better. Rearick served up a 2-run shot to Juan Uribe that put the Dodgers up 10-3 in the 5th inning. However, the Padres made it interesting.
They scored four runs in the 6th inning, three of them coming on Upton’s second homer of the game. Justin ripped a 420-foot shot to the beach over the right-center field wall. It’s the 8th multi-homer game of his career and first in a Padres uniform.
In the 7th inning the Padres lost one of their biggest offensive threats when Kemp was ejected by home plate umpire Marty Foster for questioning a strike zone that was fairly inconsistent the majority of the game.
Overall the Padres and Dodgers combined for 13 extra-base hits (7 HR, 5 doubles, 1 triple). On Sunday Los Angeles can finish the 3-game sweep when they send former Padre Joe Wieland to the mound against Brandon Morrow.
