Back-to-back Homers Again Carry Dodgers Past Padres 8-3
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts and Corey Seager homered back-to-back in the first inning, Justin Turner and AJ Pollock did the same in the fourth, and the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres with an 8-3 victory Thursday night.
The defending World Series champions remained two games behind NL West-leading San Francisco after the Giants beat Arizona 5-4 with a walk-off hit in the ninth inning. The Dodgers won their 12th in a row at home and are set to close out the regular season with three home games against NL Central-champion Milwaukee while the Giants will host San Diego.
The sellout crowd of 52,550 was still settling in when Betts launched his 23rd homer to left-center and Seager followed with his 15th to the lower right-field seats off Vince Velasquez (3-9).
The Dodgers extended the lead to 4-1 on Turner's 26th homer and Pollock's 20th in the fourth.
Their blasts gave the Dodgers a combined nine homers in seven innings over two games. Betts homered to start a comeback in the seventh on Wednesday night, and Max
Muncy, Pollock, Cody Bellinger and Seager slugged homers in the eighth to eventually win 11-9.
Seager added a solo shot in the seventh.
Fernando Tatis Jr. blasted a two-run, 467-foot shot — his NL-leading 42nd — that cleared the left-field pavilion in the fifth, drawing the Padres to 4-3. Webster Rivas, who walked leading off, scored. Tatis snapped an 0-for-14 skid dating to last Friday.
Ha-Seong Kim homered for the Padres in the second.
The Dodgers tacked on three runs in the sixth for a 7-3 lead. Will Smith and Bellinger had RBI singles and Pollock had a sacrifice fly.
Corey Knebel (4-0) got the win with 1 1/3 innings of relief. He allowed one hit and struck out one.
Velasquez gave up four runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
The Padres lost their last nine games against the Dodgers.
(© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)