J.D. Martinez followed two bloop singles with a three-run, first-inning homer off Joe Musgrove and Luis Urias continued his mastery over the Padres Saturday as the Dodgers scored a 4-2 victory over San Diego at Dodger Stadium.
Speaking of mastery, the Dodgers are 4-1 against the Padres this season and 27-6 over the past 33 regular-season games against their Southern California rivals.
Overall, the Dodgers have also won four straight games and 12 of their last 14. Saturday’s win was their eighth straight at home and clinched their fifth straight series win.
The left-handed Urias gave up two runs – on solo homers by Juan Soto and Ha-Seong Kim – on three hits and no walks with four strikeouts over seven innings Saturday to earn the win and improve to 5-3 on the season. Caleb Ferguson got his first save, striking out Jake Cronenworth to end the game with the tying runs on.
The left-handed Urias is 7-1 lifetime against the Padres and 4-0 against San Diego with a 1.96 earned run average in six starts since the beginning of the 2022 season. The Dodgers are 6-0 in those starts.
The Padres took a quick 1-0 lead Saturday when Soto hit his seventh homer of the season with two out in the first on a 410-foot drive into the right field pavilion. It was only Soto’s second hit in 24 career at-bats against Urias.
The Dodgers immediately took the lead.
With one out, Freddie Freeman hit a short fly to left that fell in front of Soto for a single. With two out, Max Muncy hit a high fly to short center. But Adam Engel — who was starting for two-time Gold glove winner Trent Grisham in center to get an extra right-handed bat in the lineup against Urias – broke back on the ball and couldn’t recover with the ball falling for a single.
Martinez then drove an 0-and-2 slider from Musgrove 407 feet to left center for his fifth homer of the season and a 3-1 Dodgers lead.
Kim homered in the top of the second to reduce the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2. His fourth homer of the season came on a 423-foot drive to left.
The Dodgers scored the game’s final run in the bottom of the third. Freeman opened with a double and scored on Will Smith’s single.
Musgrove (1-1) took the loss, giving up four runs on eight hits and four walks with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
— Field Level Media