San Diego snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Dodgers on Friday behind the pitching of rookie Cesar Vargas and the power of right fielder Matt Kemp, who is batting.320 in 20 games against his former team after belting a three-run homer in the series opener.
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The Dodgers look to find some offense and break their losing streak tomorrow at 6:10 PM when they face the Padres for game two. “I like the energy in this ballpark”. In fact, if you look at a 3 year span (2013-2015) he totaled just 8 home runs during April and May during all three of those seasons, so to say that he is hitting at a higher pace is an understatement. “If you would have asked any one of us when the season started if we’d be happy with being in first place – our record notwithstanding – I think we’d all sign on for that”. “We’ve got to do it as a team”. “It’s as simple as that”. Prior to that outing, he made two starts for the Double-A San Antonio Missions, posting a 1.42 ERA and 0.474 WHIP through 12 2/3 innings. The lefty, in his second year with the Dodgers, has given up five or more runs in three out of his four starts this season. “I believe in them and I know they’re going to come out of it”, Roberts said. The three-time NL Cy Young Award victor and 2014 MVP has won his last five outings against them, allowing just five runs in 39 innings during that stretch while striking out 49. He hasn’t started for long, so the thought of pushing him up over a hundred pitches right now is not in his best interests. “So going on Grandal right there with Brad allowed us to have the matchup with the lefites the rest of the way through, the way we wanted it”.
Upton hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the fifth inning, and the Padres also got RBI doubles from Wil Myers and Matt Kemp to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 Saturday night. The left-hander was coming off a no-decision at Colorado in which he gave up five runs in five innings before his teammates got him off the hook with five runs in the ninth and won 12-10. In between, Kemp threw out Grandal trying to stretch a line drive off the wall from a single into a double. The Padres’ starting pitchers have compiled a 3.12 earned-run average in the past 15 games and amassed 76 strikeouts compared to 37 walks going into Friday night. He turned the corner, turned the page after the start in Colorado.
Although the Padres (8-15) are now 7 games under.500, they are only 3.5 games behind the Giants and Dodgers (both 12-12) as no team in the NL West has a winning record.
“Honestly, I just feel like we needed that win as a team. That’s the most important thing”. We’re staying in the zone, getting good pitches to hit and swinging at them. We played some good baseball, got some good defense and some good pitching. Myers then lined the next pitch into left-center field to bring Jay home. Ethier received a CT scan Thursday on his left leg, which he broke during spring training when he fouled a pitch off his left shin.
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5-1 defeat on Friday night to the Padres gave Hatcher his third loss already this season and an 8.44 ERA as hefty as the weight now resting on his shoulders.
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Dodgers: Ross Stripling (0-1), who held San Francisco hitless through 7 1-3 innings in his big league debut on April 8, will be making his fifth start after a 3-2 loss to Miami on Monday.
