Cody Bellinger hit two homers, Freddie Freeman hit one, and Clayton Kershaw did the rest, as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres in a blowout, 10-2, on Sunday afternoon.
The victory gave the Dodgers their fourth consecutive series win and was their 11th overall against the Padres in their last 12 games.
The Dodgers struck first off new San Diego starting pitcher Sean Manaea. Manaea spent the first few years of his career with the Oakland Athletics before he was traded to the Padres at the end of spring training.
Mookie Betts led off the game with a single to right field and scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Justin Turner three batters later.
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Freeman put the Dodgers up three with his third home run of the season, giving him the temporary team lead with three.
The home run lead was only temporary because Bellinger belted his fourth of the season an inning later, and then took over the team lead with four when he crushed his second homer of the day, this time a three-run shot, in the top of the fifth.
Bellinger struggled in 2020, and looked atrocious in spring training, but is starting to get his mojo back at the beginning of 2021. The 2019 National League MVP now has four homers, and eight RBI on the season, and his first homer of the game off Manaea was his first against a left-handed pitcher this season. Bellinger just had one homer off a southpaw all of last season.
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The multi-homer game was the 14th of Bellinger's young career, the most by any Dodgers player before the age of 26 in franchise history.
Kershaw improved to 3-0 on the season, allowing just one run on four hits over five innings. He recorded three strike outs, leaving him just four shy of Don Sutton's all-time franchise record.
UP NEXT
The Dodgers head to Arizona where they will begin a three-game series against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix. Walker Buehler will start on Monday against Merrill Kelly for the Snakes.