SAN DIEGO (AP) — Yu Darvish combined with three relievers on a three-hitter, and the San Diego Padres pulled even with the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the NL West once again with a 2-1 victory Friday night.
Manny Machado had an RBI single and scored in the fourth inning for the Padres, who rebounded sharply after last weekend in Chavez Ravine. The archrivals are even at 73-56 with 33 games left in the regular season.
Alex Freeland hit his first major league homer for the defending champion Dodgers, who have lost three of five since last Sunday’s sweep.
Blake Snell (3-2) gave up two runs on six hits over seven strong innings for Los Angeles, but he was outdueled by the 39-year-old Darvish (3-3), who allowed just one hit and three baserunners while striking out five over six innings.
The Padres’ vaunted bullpen then came through — barely.
Jason Adam pitched a perfect seventh, but Mason Miller walked two in the eighth before San Diego turned a fraught 3-6-1 double play.
Robert Suárez then gave up a 388-foot flyout to Shohei Ohtani and singles to Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman before striking out Teoscar Hernández to earn his MLB-leading 34th save.
The weekend series is the rivals’ final head-to-head meeting in this entertaining division race. The Dodgers led by nine games on July 3, only to fall behind San Diego heading into last weekend. After the sweep, over San Francisco while the Dodgers .
The Dodgers couldn’t reach base before Freeland connected in the third. The infielder only made his major league debut July 30, but has been forced to be an everyday player by the injury absences of Tommy Edman, Hyeseong Kim, Kiké Hernández and Max Muncy.
Key moment
The Padres finally dented Snell in the fourth when Fernando Tatís Jr. drew a leadoff walk and scored on a single by Machado, who eventually came home on Xander Bogaerts’ sacrifice fly.
Key stat
The Padres are 21-12 since the All-Star break. The Dodgers are 15-17.
Up next
LA’s Tyler Glasnow (1-1, 3.12 ERA) attempts to end his surprising 11-start winless streak Saturday against Padres newcomer Nestor Cortes (1-2, 5.87).
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