Beaten and demoralized after a three-game sweep at the hands of their rivals by the Bay, the Dodgers rebounded nicely on Friday in San Diego with a 3-0 victory over the Padres.
For the third consecutive game, Los Angeles had a pitching duel on their hands as former Cy Young winner Zack Grienke went pitch-for-pitch with Padres ace Andrew Cashner.
Greinke won the battle while continuing his domination of the NL West. Grienke (3-0) allowed no runs while holding the Padres to just four hits in seven innings striking out seven batters.
"We needed that from Zack, " said Dodgers manager Don Mattingly. "We were hoping to get seven from him. Obviously we got it and we needed it."
Greinke is 21-1 against the NL West with a 1.88 ERA since becoming a Dodger in 2013. He also improved to 15-0 against the division in his last 19 starts.
Yasmani Grandal was victorious in his return to San Diego after being a key piece in the blockbuster trade that sent Matt Kemp to the Padres. Grandal went 2-for-3 with two runs and hit a double off the wall in the top half of the 2nd inning. Two batters later he scored on a Juan Uribe RBI single.
"I definitely thought it was out [a home run]," said Grandal of his double in the second. "I looked at the reply and saw it hit the top of the fence, I guess I forgot we were back at Petco."
Carl Crawford led off the seventh inning with a solo blast to the seats in right field. Crawford turned on an 83MPH change up for his first homer of the season.
"You always want to get that first one out of the way," said Crawford of his first round tripper of the season. "I didn't hit one in spring, so it's good to get that one out of the way and relax a little bit and get back to swinging the way you normally do."
Joc Pederson added an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Grienke was great for most of the night, but he got into some trouble in the second. After back-to-back singles by Derek Norris and Will Middlebrooks, the Padres had bases loaded with no outs and the top of the lineup looming. Greinke pitched out of the jam with consecutive strikeouts before Wil Myers hit a line drive up the middle that was snagged by a perfectly placed Howie Kendrick.
"I was so happy how he [Howie] was positioned there," said a smiling Greinke after the game. "I was positive it was a base hit, but he made the play."
Cashner nearly matched his counterpart with two runs on six hits with six strikeouts in seven innings of work.
Yasiel Puig re-aggravated his left hamstring in the top of the 6th inning and was replaced in right field by Andre Ethier. Puig has missed four games this season because of the hamstring injury and appears to be primed to miss a few more.
Former Dodgers slugger Matt Kemp was 2-for-4 with a double in the loss.
Dodgers' rookie Yimi Garcia pitched a perfect ninth and threw some filthy pitches for his first save of the season.
Game Notes:
The revolving door on the Dodgers 25-man roster saw relief pitcher Sergio Santos called up from Triple-A Oklahoma City and Thursday's starter Mike Bolsinger sent down.
