Luis Campasno homered and Dylan Cease won his fourth straight start as the San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-1 on Wednesday for their second straight victory.
Cease (11-8) pitched 5 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and one run with three walks and six strikeouts in his first appearance since pitching a no-hitter against the Washington Nationals on July 25. Cease has allowed just five hits and one run over 27 2/3 innings over his past four starts, striking out 36 in that span.
Clayton Kershaw (0-1) gave up six hits and seven runs (three earned) in just 3 2/3 innings in his second start of the year. Kershaw walked one and struck out none, helping Los Angeles close the gap to 4 1/2 games behind San Diego in the NL West, the Dodgers’ smallest lead since May 4.
The Padres won for the ninth time in 10 games, while the Dodgers lost for the fourth time in five games.
Campasanno and Jurickson Profar each had two hits and two RBIs to fuel a 12-hit Padres offense that was also helped by shaky defense. The Dodgers committed three errors and allowed four earned runs.
Kershaw did his own damage in the second inning, which saw four runs scored. After Campusano opened the scoring with a one-run RBI single to home Jackson Merrill, Kershaw dropped a safety squeeze bunt by Bryce Johnson on an error to make it 2-0. Luis Arraez grounded out to home Campusano, and Profar singled home Johnson with two outs for one run.
Los Angeles ended Cease’s scoreless streak at 24 in the third inning with a Gavin Lux scoreless double, but even that play looked like a miss. Shohei Ohtani tried to score on a wild pitch to the infield, but was cut off at home plate for the third out.
San Diego jumped out to a three-run lead in the fourth inning. Campasano smashed his seventh home run of the year to left field, Profar followed with another run-scoring single and Xander Bogaerts hit a sacrifice fly to put the team ahead 7-1.
Merrill rounded out the scoring in the seventh inning with a double over the right field fence.
–Field Level Media
