A rain delay pushed back 1st pitch of Saturday night's Padres-Dodgers game more than two hours. The Friars might have been better served having the whole thing washed away.
Dodgers starter Gavin Stone took a perfect game into the 6th inning and reliever Tom Cosgrove had another rough outing in a 5-2 loss at Dodger Stadium. It was a series of events we've seen play out time and again between these teams: the Dodgers took better advantage of their scoring chances than the Padres did.
Matt Waldron started for the Friars and was pretty good. He only allowed one run in 5.0 innings but it came in a situation most pitchers would like to avoid. With two outs he walked Gavin Lux to bring Mookie Betts to the plate. That is not the guy you want to give a chance to drive in a run. Betts singled to left to bring in James Outman and put the Dodgers on top 1-0.
The Padres were able to tie it against Stone, who retired the first 15 batters he faced before walking Tyler Wade (who was then erased on an Eguy Rosario double play). With two outs catcher Kyle Higashioka broke up the no-hitter with a clean single to left field. The knock touched off a mini-rally. Jackson Merrill, hitting in the leadoff spot for the first time with Xander Bogaerts getting a night off, ripped a single to right field and Fernando Tatis Jr. lofted a double to left-center to score Higashioka and tie it 1-1.
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Cosgrove came on for the bottom of the 6th. He hit Max Muncy to lead it off, which turned out to be a bit of foreshadowing for his night. Kike Hernandez, Lux, and Betts hit consecutive singles and Shohei Ohtani hit a sacrifice fly, altogether a 3-run rally to make it 4-1, which turned out to be enough for the win.
Not that there wasn't more drama. In the 9th it was a 5-2 game when Manny Machado and Jurickson Profar singled with one out, bringing the tying run to the plate. This is where the Dodgers excel and the Padres still tend to struggle. Ha-Seong Kim grounded into a fielders choice and Tyler Wade grounded out to end their final threat.
San Diego can still take the series on Sunday night with Yu Darvish on the mound against James Paxton.
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