SAN DIEGO – It was back to a grinding game for the San Diego Padres' offense as they dropped the series finale to the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 on Wednesday afternoon at Petco Park.
Teoscar Hernández hit his 11th home run of the season, a three-run blast in the sixth inning off Jeremiah Estrada to break a 1-1 tie. Eight different Dodgers pitchers combined to hold the Padres to four hits, with reliever Lou Trevino earning his second win and Alex Vesia notching his third save.
"I don't think there were a ton of surprises. Today came down to who capitalized on the opportunities that were there," said manager Mike Shildt.
After 13 straight days of games, the San Diego offense went in order in six innings. With an off day on Thursday, the Padres used seven relievers over the final 4 ⅓ innings, who surrendered eight of LA’s 10 hits.
Starter Randy Vásquez was efficient through his 4 ⅔ innings, allowing two hits and one run with four strikeouts and a walk on 70 pitches, and was replaced before facing Ohtani for a third time.
"He was really good, he did his job and got us to a point in the game where we were happy with," Shildt said. "We had a rested bullpen, we had guys we really liked."
The Padres had loaded the bases with one out in the seventh on three straight walks by reliever Michael Kopech, who missed the zone on 12 of 16 pitches during the stretch. But left-hander Anthony Banda came on and got an infield pop out by Luis Arraez and a Manny Machado ground out ended the threat.
Shohei Otahni hit a one-out triple to right field off Wandy Peralta in the ninth inning, then after Freeman walked with two outs, Will Smith singled in the 5-2 insurance run.
Los Angeles took the lead in the sixth inning against the Padres' bullpen, as Freddie Freeman had a one-out hit deflected off reliever Adrian Morejon. It brought in Estrada, who walked Will Smith on five pitches and then left a four-seam fastball too middle that Hernández cracked a three-run home run on for a 4-1 visitors lead — Freeman’s run gave LA the lead for good and tagged Morejon with his third loss of the season.
"The homers are going to happen...guys earn their walks and they're men, not machines, but the fact of the matter is that's what the game comes down to a lot of times, especially close games against good teams," Shildt said.
In the bottom of the inning, San Diego got runners on first and third after Machado reached on a fielder’s choice and took second on a throwing error by Hyesong Kim on an attempted double play turn. Jackson Merrill followed with a single, then Gavin Sheets hit a sacrifice fly to trim the deficit to two, but no closer.
The Padres opened the scoring in the second, the only inning they were able to get base runners against Los Angeles rookie starter Ben Casparius.
Gavin Sheets, Xander Bogaerts, and Jake Cronenworth each singled with one out, but Andy Pages fielded the Cronenworth single and threw Sheets out at home. A seven-pitch walk worked by Jose Iglesias loaded the bases, then Martín Maldonado took four of five pitches outside for the RBI free pass. Fernando Tatis Jr. flew out to right field on the first pitch he saw, leaving the Padres with a 1-0 lead.
Casparius, who got the nod before the game over fellow reliever Justin Wrobleski to open, made his second start of the season. Over his four innings, the rookie retired the Padres in order three times, finishing with three hits and one run allowed to go with two walks and two strikeouts.
The San Diego starter Vásqsuez was able to get out of a two-out, runners on the corners spot in the second inning by striking out Michael Conforto, but gave up his only run on a Conforto solo home run in the fifth inning.
"They've been great (and) more than held their own...we've done our best we can put the guys in the right spots and for the most we've been rewarded for that and they've pitched really well," Shildt said of the pitching staff's performance through 13 of 26 games in 27 days.
After the longest wait for the first series between the Brown and Gold and Dodger Blue in over two decades, the teams will meet again for a four-game series at Dodger Stadium beginning on Monday, June 16.
After the off day, the Padres travel to Chase Field to face the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first time this season. Stephen Kolek (3-1, 3.00 ERA) is tabbed to start for San Diego against righty Ryne Nelson (2-2, 4.60 ERA), with first pitch scheduled for 6:40 p.m.
This story was updated at 4:45 p.m.