Padres Walk Off Dodgers to Start Doubleheader

Yangervis Solarte smacks 9th inning home run to Beat L.A.

Thank goodness the Padres did not trade Yangervis Solarte.

The effervescent infielder walked off the Dodgers with a solo home run in a 6-5 Padres win on Saturday afternoon at Petco Park, the first game of a day-night doubleheader that was one of your classic back-and-forth affairs.

The game was tied 1-1 in the 4th inning when Cody Bellinger launched a solo home run off Padres starter Clayton Richard. It’s the 35th homer of the season for the Dodgers rookie, tying the franchise’s rookie record held by Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza. Los Angeles upped the lead to 3-1 in the 5th inning on an RBI single by Austin Barnes.

The Padres tied it in the 6th when Jabari Blash singled home Wil Myers and Hector Sanchez brought in Cory Spangenberg with an RBI groundout. San Diego took its first lead of the day in the 7th when Myers tripled to score Jose Pirela. Myers doubled and a tripled in one of his better offensive games of late. He scored on a Spangenberg single and the Padres had a 5-3 lead.

They held it until the 9th inning when All-Star Brad Hand came in to close and had a rare bad outing. Fellow All-Star Justin Turner, who has a penchant for big late-inning hits, hammered a 2-run game-tying homer to level the score 5-5.

That set up Solarte to be the hero. Yan turned on a Pedro Baez fastball that was probably a couple of inches inside and lofted it over the right field wall, kicking off a damp celebration at home plate as water and Gatorade was thrown about with delight.

The nightcap starts at 7:10 with Jordan Lyles trying to outduel Yu Darvish.

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