The Dodgers had a lead on the very first pitch of the game, while the Padres couldn’t scratch across a single run as the Dodgers took the series by shutting out San Diego 4-0 on Wednesday.
Shohei Ohtani smacked his second leadoff home run of the season, as he attacked the first pitch of the game from Randy Vásquez just over the leaping Jackson Merrill to give the Dodgers an immediate 1-0 lead. His 21st leadoff home run as a Dodger is now tied with Joc Pederson for the third most in franchise history.
Ohtani is now the first starting pitcher to hit a leadoff home run one the first pitch of the game in both the regular season and playoffs.
The Dodgers made sure that Ohtani didn’t have to everything all at once, as a sacrifice fly from Teoscar Hernández in the top of the second made it a two-run lead. The Dodgers went down quietly the second time through the lineup, but after chasing Vásquez out of the game in the fifth, Kyle Tucker greeted reliever Wandy Peralta with an RBI single to right to make it a three-run lead.
It always helps when a team can get immediate run support from their pitcher in the leadoff spot, as Ohtani continued to dazzle on the mound, throwing three perfect innings to begin his night with three strikeouts. The perfect game and no-hit bid came to a crash in the fourth inning by allowing a walk and a single, but Ohtani got a pair of flyouts from Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts to keep the Padres off the board.
Ohtani nearly let the lead— and shutout— slip away as a walk to Freddy Fermin helped load the bases for San Diego with only one out in the bottom of the fifth inning. All Ohtani needed was a ground ball on his first pitch to Fernando Tatis Jr. to induce a 6-4-3 double play to close his outing on the rubber.
Although it was the first time all season that Ohtani didn’t have a quality start, he has now tossed 12 scoreless innings over his last two starts while lowering his season ERA to 0.73. His four strikeouts on Wednesday were the lowest in any start this year since he struck out two against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 8.
Edgardo Henriquez and Blake Treinen both tossed scoreless innings in relief of Ohtani, but the Padres began to mount another rally in the bottom of the eighth against Kyle Hurt. Ramon Laureano lined a single to right before Tatis sprinkled a weak ground ball to the left side of the infield. Muncy double clutched the throw to first, but in doing so lost his grip on the ball that was thrown into shallow right field, allowing Laureano to go to third on the play. Against Miguel Andujar— the only Padre with multiple home runs in the series— with one out, Hurt induced an inning-ending double play to keep San Diego scoreless.
Teoscar Hernández provided some insurance in the top of the ninth against Ron Marinaccio with a monster solo home run to left that landed in the second deck, giving the Dodgers a four-run lead. After going a full calendar months between home runs hit, Hernández now has two home runs over the six games on this current road trip.
Will Klein was tasked with closing duties for a second straight game, and he recorded a perfect bottom of the ninth to complete the second Dodgers shutout victory on the road trip. The Dodgers have now held the Padres scoreless over their last 15 innings on the mound since the home run from Andujar against Emmet Sheehan on Tuesday.
After going hitless in his last 16 at-bats entering Tuesday, Freddie Freeman now has four extra-base hits his last two games, as he smacked a pair of doubles against Vásquez. The latter was the 560th of his career, which puts him tied with Hall of Famers Jeff Kent and Eddie Murray for 29th on the all-time doubles list.
Game particulars
- Home runs— Shohei Ohtani (8), Teoscar Hernández (6)
- WP— Shohei Ohtani (4-2): 5 IP, 3 hits, 0 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts
- LP— Randy Vásquez (5-2): 4 1/3 IP, 6 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, 0 strikeouts
Up next
The Dodgers have an off-day on Thursday as they fly out to the Midwest for a three-game rematch of the 2025 NLCS against the Milwaukee Brewers beginning Friday (4:40 p.m. PT). Justin Wrobleski starts against Logan Henderson.
