Will Smith's walk-off slams door on Padres

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have now won five straight games and are a game away from sweeping their National League West rivals following their 4-3 walk-off win against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday in Chavez Ravine. 

Originally having the night off, Will Smith came in during the bottom of the ninth inning to pinch hit for Kike Hernández. Facing closer Robert Suárez with one out, Smith sent a third pitch changeup to the right field seats for his eight home run of the season. 

A frame before the walk-off, the Padres managed to throw up two runs to tie the game late. However, they couldn’t buy the timely hit to jump ahead, even with two RISP and one out. Jose Iglesias, who pinch-hit for Trenton Brooks in the eighth inning, reached on a fielder’s choice out, and Díaz grounded into a force out to end the inning. 

"Good at-bats in the ninth," Padres manager Mike Shildt said. "The Iglesias ball (was) a missile right to Freddie (Freeman). He made a nice play."

The other time the Padres displayed any offense was during the second inning when they scored the game's first run. Jake Cronenworth hit a lead-off double to the gap in right field, and two batters later, Elias Díaz labeled the pitch went back up over the pitcher’s mound at 103 mph for an RBI single.

With the end results, it was the third time in the series where the Padres scored the opening run and failed to hold onto their lead. It would be difficult for any team to hold any sort of lead if they can’t even get on base. 

Leaders like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado finished 0-for-4 tonight against two different pitchers. Even Xander Bogaerts, Gavin Sheets and Díaz all went 1-for-4.  

The Padres went 3-for-8 with RISP tonight, 3-for-10 on Tuesday and 1-for-8 on Monday, going 7-for-26 in the series with one game left. 

Facing a complete bullpen game for a third consecutive night, the Padres could not take advantage of a more worn out rotation. Even dropping the first two games, the Padres hoped to have a more comfortable night offensively and put the Dodgers’ pitching room in an even tougher position for tomorrow’s series finale.

Following Díaz’s RBI single, the Friars did not record a hit until a two-out double by Bryce Johnson in the eighth inning as a result of a dominant performance on the mound for both Dodgers’ pitchers Emmet Sheenan and Justin Wrobleski. 

Coming off the IL today after having Tommy John surgery in May 2024, Sheenan started his first game since Sept. 27, 2023 against the Rockies. Sheehan went 4-1 with a 4.92 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 60.1 IP over 13 games (11 starts) in a three-month stretch during the 2023 campaign. 

The right-hander pitched four innings, allowing up a run on three hits with six strikeouts, including retiring the last seven batters he faced, striking out four consecutive.

Sheehan was replaced by Wrobleski (2-2, 5.18 ERA) at the start of the fifth inning, and he followed suit by shutting down his first 11 batters. The lefty would pitch the final five innings and allow one earned run, four hits and three strikeouts. 

The Dodgers were adamant about keeping Wrobleski to finish the game, which opened the door for the Padres to garner some offense since the second inning. 

The Padres would get the bases loaded with no outs after Arraez started the inning with a single, Machado reaching on base by a fielder’s choice after a throwing error to second base by Max Muncy and a single by Sheets. 

Cronenworth made it a one-run game after hitting a sac-fly. Then Bogaerts, who has faced a heavy amount of criticism around the league for his lack of offense tied to his hefty contract, tied the game 3-3 with a RBI double.

"It's not a big park and (Andy) Pages has a good arm, and it looked like he got over there pretty good," Shildt said. "We've got one out. We got a fast guy at third... for contact or anything in the air with A contact guy with Iglesias. As far as the decision, I had no problem with it." 

Not his best outing on the bump, starting pitcher Stephen Kolek (3-2, 3.59 ERA) had a solid outing, pitching 6 ⅓ innings, giving up three earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts. It was Kolek’s third time in his major league career where he pitched at least six innings. 

Another moment that took place tonight was during the seventh inning when Kolek hit Andy Pages by a pitch. Moments after the plunk, it left a moment of unease around the stadium, but both players acknowledged that the intent of the pitch was not intentional.   

During monday's series opener, Pages got hit with a 98 mph fastball ball to the back of his left arm.

Since that moment, it started building into the following game on Tuesday where both teams were issued with warnings after Tatis Jr. and Shohei Ohtani were hit by pitch, leading to Dodger's manager Dave Roberts being ejected during the bottom of third inning. 

Losing 7 of their last 10 games, the Padres could have used tonight to help regain their footing in NL Wildcard standings, holding the last spot by a game. Within the division, the Padres are six games behind the Dodgers and a game and half behind the Giants. 

The fourth and final game of the series will take place tomorrow at 7:10 p.m. The Padres will start 25-year-old right-handed pitcher Ryan Bergert (1-0, 2.33 ERA) and the Dodgers will go with their current right-handed ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-5, 2.64 ERA) as their starting pitcher.