SAN DIEGO — It happened again to Blake Snell, and it happened again to the Padres.
Snell could not close out the Dodgers’ eighth and ninth batters. He could not get around the major leagues’ best succession of 1-2-3 hitters. With that, a fine night deteriorated in a relative blink.
And a familiar story for Snell became one for the Padres on Saturday night at packed and divided Petco Park.
The Dodgers scored four runs in the fifth inning and beat the Padres, 8-4, in front of the 24th sellout crowd of the season, which tied the Petco record set in the ballpark’s first season in 2004.
The gathering’s complexion seemed to be slightly titled toward those wearing blue, though that may have owed to them having far more to cheer.
Regardless, a good number of the 43,639 in attendance mingled their boos with the cheers of Padres fans as Manny Machado walked to the plate for each of his plate appearances, and he twice made the roar from Padres fans far louder by launching home runs.
But the home team could muster virtually nothing else against Julio Urías, who maintained his National League lead despite his ERA inflating a hundredth of a point to 2.30. He allowed just three other hits in seven innings and won his 16th game of the season. Saturday was his fourth win in his past four starts against the Padres, during which time he has allowed four runs in 30 innings.
The Padres lost a game to the Phillies and Brewers in the NL wild-card race, as both teams won Saturday. The Phillies are now a half-game up on the Padres in the race for the fifth playoff spot, and the Brewers pulled to within three games of the Padres in the race for the sixth (final) spot.
Anyone who missed Saturday’s game had perhaps seen something like it before had they watched one of Snell’s previous starts this season.
The left-hander with the dastardly but often unruly pitches was doing well. Then he wasn’t. Suddenly.
The teams were tied 1-1 in the fifth when Snell spiraled.
He got up 0-2 on Trayce Thompson and walked him on seven pitches. He got up 1-2 on Austin Barnes and watched the Dodgers’ No. 9 batter line a full-count slider to left field for a double that moved Thompson to third base.
Snell then walked Mookie Betts on four pitches before Trea Turner short-hopped the wall with a bases-clearing double that made it 4-1. Freddie Freeman followed with a double that scored Turner.
That was the end of Snell’s night. It was the sixth game this season in which he allowed more than two runs in an inning. It was the fourth time in those six games in which he allowed just one other run outside the big inning.
While it followed a similar path to many of his starts, it was a first for him against the Dodgers. He entered the game with a 1.99 ERA in nine starts against them, including the two he made for the Rays in the 2020 World Series. He had never allowed the Dodgers more than two runs in a game.
The loss followed a 5-4 walk-off win for the Padres in Friday’s series opener and was their 11th defeat in 15 games against the Dodgers this season. Eight of those losses have been by five or more runs. They have not won consecutive games against the Dodgers since sweeping three games from June 21-23 of last season.
Machado’s first home run made it 1-1 in the bottom of the third after the Dodgers had scored in the top of the inning on a triple by Turner and single by Freeman. After Machado’s second home run got the Padres to 5-2 in the sixth inning, Freeman’s two-run homer off Nabil Crismatt increased the Dodgers’ lead to 7-2. A double by Will Smith and a walk by Justin Turner was the end of Crismatt’s night, and Chris Taylor drove in Smith with a single against Steven Wilson to make it 8-2.
The Padres added two runs in the ninth on a single by Josh Bell, double by Wil Myers, sacrifice fly by Jurickson Profar and double by Luis Campusano.
