If Blake Snell is the caliber of ace the Dodgers must discover a method to beat within the playoffs, then Wednesday night time’s sport doesn’t bode nicely for his or her World Collection hopes.
Mookie Betts led off the primary inning with a bloop single to left-center discipline, and the Dodgers didn’t get one other hit off the veteran left-hander in a 6-1 loss to the San Diego Padres earlier than a crowd of 41,810 in Chavez Ravine.
Snell, mixing a energetic 96-mph fastball with a curve, changeup and slider, burnished his Nationwide League Cy Younger Award credentials with a six-inning, one-hit, eight-strikeout, one-walk effort that improved him to 14-9 with a league-best 2.43 ERA.
Snell’s 217 strikeouts rank second within the NL behind Atlanta ace Spencer Strider (259), and he leads the majors in opponents’ batting common (.187). Betts, who additionally walked within the third, was the one Dodger to succeed in base in opposition to Snell.
Padres right-hander Robert Suarez struck out the facet within the seventh inning, right-hander Nick Martinez gave up one hit in a scoreless eighth, and left-hander Tom Cosgrove gave up a solo homer to Kolten Wong within the ninth.
The one different shiny spot for the Dodgers (88-57), who rank second within the majors in runs, homers and on-base-plus-slugging proportion and lead baseball in walks, was that their magic quantity to clinch their tenth NL West title in 11 years was decreased to a few with Arizona’s loss to the New York Mets.
Dodgers right-hander Ryan Pepiot, who changed Julio UrÃas within the rotation final week after the left-hander’s arrest on suspicion of home violence, gave up 4 runs and 6 hits in six innings, placing out 5 and strolling none, to fall to 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA in 5 begins.
Pepiot was dominant in his earlier begin at Miami final Thursday, retiring the primary 20 batters earlier than Josh Bell broke up his perfect-game bid with a two-out single within the sixth inning. Pepiot settled for seven shutout innings in a 10-0 win.
However two errors, each on 0-and-2 pitches, doomed him Wednesday night time. Juan Soto belted a right-over-the-middle, 95-mph fastball for a solo dwelling run to proper discipline within the first inning, and Luis Campusano drove a middle-in, 84-mph changeup over the left-field wall for a three-run homer within the fourth.
Soto’s shot was his thirtieth homer, transferring the outfielder right into a choose group of six gamers with a number of 30-homer, 100-walk seasons, based on ESPN Stats & Information. The others: Ted Williams, Mel Ott, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Matthews and Jimmie Foxx.
Pepiot retired the subsequent seven batters earlier than Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled to left-center to open the fourth. Soto singled to proper, placing runners on first and third, and Campusano hit a towering homer into the Dodgers bullpen for a 4-0 lead.
Pepiot was changed to start out the seventh by Joe Kelly, who was activated Wednesday after lacking a month due to right-forearm irritation.
Kelly walked two batters, gave up a one-out infield single to Eguy Rosario and a two-out, two-run single to Tatis, whose broken-bat flare dropped in shallow proper discipline for a 6-0 lead.