The Padres and Dodgers combined to hit eight home runs on Friday night. The winning run came on an opposite-field single by a 20-year-old rookie.
In the 11th inning Jackson Merrill lined an 0-2 pitch into the left field to score Jose Azocar to beat LA 8-7 and give the Padres their first extra-innings win of 2024, something that took them about five months to accomplish in 2023.
Manny Machado got the scoring started with a 2-run home run in the 1st inning off Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the first runs the $325 million man has allowed since his first start of the year when he gave up five runs in his only inning of work against the Padres in Korea. Little did we know that blast would light the fuse on a night of offensive glottony.
Shohei Ohtani got LA on the board in the bottom half with an opposite field solo homer off Michael King and the home run derby was (un)officially on. Ha-Seong Kim hit a solo shot in the 2nd inning, followed by Max Muncy's solo shot in the bottom of the 2nd. It could have ended there but Xander Bogaerts made an error to extend the inning and Mookie Betts launched a 3-run shot to make it 5-3 Dodgers.
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King, who did not throw as poorly as his line looks, allowed one more blast to Teoscar Hernandez in the 3rd inning that put the Dodgers up 7-3. In the past that kind of deficit was too much for the Padres to overcome at Dodger Stadium. This time they found a way to climb the mountain.
In the 6th inning Jake Cronenworth smacked his 3rd homer of the year, a solo bomb that made it 7-4. In the 7th inning they got an RBI groundout from Bogaerts to make it 7-5 and bring up Fernando Tatis Jr., who just loves hitting in Chavez Ravine. El Nino ripped a 2-run homer to left to tie it 7-7, setting up a battle of the bullpens. On this night San Diego's relief corps was better.
Stephen Kolek, Yuki Matsui, Wandy Peralta, Tom Cosgrove, Enyel De Los Santos, and Robert Suarez kept the Dodgers off the board for the next seven innings, setting the stage for Merrill. After Kim struck out and Luis Campusano popped out to open the 11th inning Merrill got a pitch up in the zone and served it to left, sending Azocar sprinting home with the go-ahead run.
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Suarez made the bottom of the inning uneventful, getting Betts to fly out to end it and leaving Ohtani in the on-deck circle. The Padres have won two straight against LA and can take the series on Saturday night when Matt Waldron gets the ball against Gavin Stone.
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