Dodgers Lead in NL West Cut After Loss to Last Place Padres

This is not how you keep your foot on the gas.

Hunter Renfroe hit a two-run homer, Freddy Galvis added a solo shot and the last-place San Diego Padres beat the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. 

Entering the game, Los Angeles led the NL West division by 2.5 games over Colorado, but that lead was trimmed to just a game and a half after the Rockies rallied to defeat the Diamondbacks, 6-2, in Arizona.

Eric Lauer (6-7) pitched five innings of one-run ball in in his first win since July 10. Kirby Yates allowed Manny Machado's two-out RBI single in the ninth before striking out Joc Pederson for his 10th save.

"He's brought his best against us," said Dodgers' manager Dave Roberts of Lauer. "A couple guys got some good swings off of him, but collectively we just can't seem to figure him out." 

In his three career starts against the Dodgers, the rookie Lauer has gone 3-0 with a 0.92 ERA holding hitters to just a .203 average and two runs with 18 strikeouts. 

Lauer's three victories against Los Angeles this season are more than half of the Padres five overall wins against the Boys in Blue.

Renfroe slugged his 24th homer on a 3-2 pitch with one out in the fourth, putting the Padres ahead 2-1 after Franmil Reyes' leadoff single against Ross Stripling (8-5).

"That was a bad pitch to him," admitted Stripling of the homer surrendered to Renfroe. "He hammers bad sliders, and that was a bad slider."

Galvis homered into the lower right-field seats leading off the seventh, making it 3-1.

"I think Galvis was sitting on a changeup," said Roberts of the homer. "I think he was looking for it and homered off of it."

The Dodgers threatened in the seventh and eighth innings only to come up short with runners in scoring position.

"We just couldn't take advantage of situations where we had runners in scoring position," said shorstop Manny Machado. "That could have changed the game if we would have gotten a hit with runners in scoring position early on in the game."

They cut their deficit to 3-2 in the eighth. Pederson doubled to deep right-center and Matt Kemp struck out before Yasiel Puig singled to left, scoring Pederson.

Yasmani Grandal walked before Yates came in to face pinch-hitter Cody Bellinger. He got Bellinger on a swinging strike to end the inning.

Trailing 3-1, the Dodgers had the potential tying runs on in the seventh. Brian Dozier walked and took second on Enrique Hernandez's two-out single. Dozier moved to third and Hernandez went to second on a wild pitch by Robert Stock. Justin Turner flied to left to end the threat.

"This one got away from us. Partially because of me, I'll take full responsibility for it," said Turner after the game. "You can't give teams extra outs. If you give a team extra outs, you're not going to win a lot of games. I have to do a better job catching the ball."

Turner also committed a career-high two errors in the contest, the third time he's had multiple errors in a game. 

The Padres extended their lead to 5-2 in the ninth against John Axford. Wil Myers hit a two-run double.

The Dodgers struck first, taking a 1-0 lead on Hernandez's 21st homer in the third.

"He's got a really good fastball," said Hernandez of Lauer. "I got to see a lot of pitches in the first at-bat, so my second AB I was just trying to get at something over the plate. He threw a little cutter in and I was able to get the head out."

Making his return to the rotation, Stripling allowed two runs and three hits in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.

"Second time through the lineup, guys are putting really good at-bats together," said Stripling of his start overall. "For the second outing in a row I thought I had really good stuff. The only mistake I can think of was the Renfroe homer, he made me pay for it, and then two, 10-pitch walks."

San Diego had dropped five in a row against Los Angeles. It was the Padres' first win over the Dodgers since July 10 at Petco Park. 

UP NEXT

RHP Jacob Nix (2-3, 5.75 ERA) goes for the Padres in his first career start against Los Angeles. He made his big league debut on Aug. 10.

LHP Rich Hill (9-5, 4.02 ERA) starts for the Dodgers on Saturday night. He last faced the Padres a month ago, tossing six scoreless innings and striking out eight.