Jackson Merrill provided the go-ahead single in the 11th inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. homered and had three hits, and the San Diego Padres rallied for a 8-7 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday night despite Shohei Ohtani hitting his 175th home run in the majors to tie Hideki Matsui for the most by a Japanese-born player.
Tatis Jr. hit a two-run shot in the seventh inning to tie it at 7-all. Manny Machado, Ha-Seong Kim and Jake Cronenworth also went deep for the Padres, who trailed 7-3 after three innings.
With José Azocar as the automatic runner in the 11th, Vázquez had a two-out base hit to left field off Alex Vesia (0-2) to drive in the go-ahead run.
Robert Suarez (1-0) threw 1 1/3 hitless innings for the win.
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San Diego won its first extra-inning game this season. The Padres lost their first 12 last year before winning a pair in the season’s final week.
In the first inning, Ohtani drove an elevated outside fastball from Michael King 403 feet into the center-field stands, closing the Dodgers to 2-1.
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Ohtani is batting .457 (16-for-35) during his eight-game hitting streak, including four homers, 12 extra-base hits and seven RBIs.
On Friday afternoon, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s former longtime interpreter, to undergo gambling addiction treatment in a sports betting case stemming from allegations he stole $16 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay off debts.
Mookie Betts became the fourth player in the majors to reach six homers this season while Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy also went deep.
San Diego took a 2-0 lead in the first when Machado drove a first-pitch curveball from Yoshinobu Yamamoto into the stands in left-center.
After Kim led off the second inning with a solo shot to make it 3-1, the Dodgers took the lead with four in the home half. Muncy began the inning with a drive to right field and Betts gave Los Angeles a 5-3 advantage with a three-run shot to left-center.
King appeared as if he was going to get out of the inning allowing only one run, but second baseman Xander Bogaerts booted a routine grounder by Gavin Lux to put runners at first and second when Betts came up to bat.
Betts also made a leaping catch near the stands in foul territory on the third-base side on a ball hit by Luis Campusano.
Hernández gave the Dodgers a four-run advantage in the fourth with a two-run line drive into the Padres' bullpen in right field for his fifth of the season.
Cronenworth started the Padres' rally with a solo shot in the sixth. San Diego tied in the seventh with three runs on an RBI grounder by Bogaerts and Tatis' homer.
Both starters went five innings. Yamamoto allowed three runs, four hits and struck out six while King gave up seven runs (three earned) on six hits with four strikeouts.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler (elbow) was hit on the pitching hand by a comebacker in the second inning during a rehab start for Class A Rancho Cucamonga. Buehler was scheduled to make around 80 pitches.
UP NEXT
San Diego RHP Matt Waldron (0-1, 3.86 ERA) will be opposed by Los Angeles RHP Gavin Stone (0-1, 7.88 ERA) on Saturday night.
