Freddie Freeman homered in back-to-back innings, rookie Dalton Rushing hit a tiebreaking three-run shot in the seventh, and the Los Angeles Dodgers evened the NL West race once again with an 8-2 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday.
Shohei Ohtani hit his 45th homer in the ninth inning and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8) yielded four hits over six strong innings for the Dodgers, who salvaged the last game of their final regular-season series with the Padres after managing just two runs while losing the first two and falling out of first.
The Southern California archrivals are now even at 74-57 with 31 games left.
Backup catcher Elias Díaz hit a two-run homer in the third, but the Padres’ five-game winning streak ended after Jeremiah Estrada (4-5) gave up a homer for the second straight day out of San Diego’s usually formidable bullpen.
Shortly after Rushing’s third career homer, Freeman — who hit a tying solo shot in the sixth off Nick Pivetta — added a two-run blast off Wandy Peralta.
Ohtani was hitless in the series until he crushed a fastball from Yuki Matsui.
Pivetta pitched six innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts, retiring 16 of 17 before Freeman’s first homer.
He provided the third straight outstanding effort by the Padres’ starters against LA. Pivetta, Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes combined to allow just three runs on four hits over 18 innings.
But Yamamoto met the challenge, striking out six and keeping the defending World Series champions in it until their bats finally awoke.
Padres’ outfielder Ramon Laureano robbed a grand slam off the bat of Dodgers’ slugger Teoscar Hernández. With the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the first inning, Hernández appeared to hit a grand slam to straightaway center, but Laureano leaped over the wall to make the catch, turning a would-have-been four-run lead to a sac fly for an early 1-0 lead. The Dodgers would strand the remaining runners.
Key moment
Rushing, the Dodgers’ backup catcher and No. 9 hitter, celebrated with gusto after hammering a full-count slider from Estrada.
Key stat
Mookie Betts had three hits for the Dodgers. After a rough stretch, he’s batting .348 since Aug. 5.
Up next
Emmet Sheehan (4-2, 4.17 ERA) faces LA native Hunter Greene on Monday when the Dodgers host Cincinnati.
The Padres visit Seattle on Monday. They haven’t named a starter.