*Photo from the Jefferson County Union*
Petco Park has been electric this weekend. After all, with the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers being the hottest rivalry in baseball right now, why wouldn't it be? The Padres sure love it. Jake Cronenworth homered, Ha-Seong Kim homered, and the Padres topped the Dodgers 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Padres manager Jayce Tingler said "It’s absolutely electric. We come out of the tunnel and you get to the dugout and you can just feel the energy. You can hear it as you walk down the tunnel. The anthem goes on and you eyeball the stadium and it’s packed. Then it comes game time and the place is just electric. It fills us full of energy, it fills us full of juice. It’s our responsibility to play good, winning baseball and it’s nice being able to feed off that electricity in the stadium, that’s for sure."
Cronenworth got the scoring started for the Padres basically right away, when he cranked a two run homer to right center field in the first inning, giving the Padres a pretty quick 2-0 lead to start things off. Kim then did his part, hitting a solo homer to left field in the 5th inning, increasing the Padres lead to 3-0.
Then the Dodgers slowly started to crawl back in to the game after that. Chris Taylor scored in the 8th inning on a fielders choice by Will Smith, cutting the Padres lead to 3-1 at the time. The Dodgers made it even tighter in the 9th, when Austin Barnes launched a solo homer to left, cutting the deficit to 3-2, but the Dodgers couldn't get any more after that.
Blake Snell turned in a solid outing for the Padres in this one, throwing a shutout, while allowing 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 5 hitters over 5 innings pitched, earning the win to improve to 3-3 this season. Nabil Crismatt then gave 2 2/3 innings of one run ball, followed by Nick Ramirez, who didn't get a single out, Mason Thompson, who got one out, and Mark Melancon, who got the save in the 9th, his 22nd of the season.
Snell said of the atmosphere for the game that "The atmosphere is great. I love the energy. I love the rivalry. I love everything about it. There’s a lot of meaning into these starts. And winning, in general, makes everything better."
Clayton Kershaw got the loss for the Dodgers, allowing all 3 Padres runs on 4 hits and two walks, recording 7 strikeouts in 6 innings pitched for the Dodgers, who have now dropped both games in this series to the Padres. Victor Gonzalez, Blake Treinen, and Jimmy Nelson also pitched for the Dodgers.
When asked about how good the Padres pitching staff has been, Dodgers infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor said "That’s what’s going to happen when you face good teams like them. They brought these guys in for a reason, and they’re doing a good job. But we need to be better."
The Dodgers and Padres finish their series tonight, with Trevor Bauer starting for the Dodgers as they try to avoid getting swept, and Joe Musgrove starts for the Padres.
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