SAN DIEGO — Eric Hosmer didn’t let the rare gift from the Dodgers go to waste.
His single in the eighth inning drove in two runners to give the Padres their first lead since Friday, and the Padres held on for a 5-2 victory that prevented them from being swept in the first series of the year against the team they can now legitimately claim as a rival.
The Dodgers played an almost flawless three games at Petco Park, but shortstop Corey Seager’s throw wide of first base allowed lead-off hitter Jurickson Profar to reach base at the start of the eighth inning.
Jake Cronenworth popped out, Fernando Tatis Jr. walked and Manny Machado popped out, bringing up Hosmer.
He grounded a 1-0 change-up from Dennis Santana up the middle, sending Profar home and Tatis to third. After a review showed that Tatis had erronesouly been called out, Tommy Pham drilled his first extra-base hit of the season, a double to the left field corner that scored two more.
The win followed two losses that had the Padres frustrated and had the Dodgers looking like they might just run away with the National League West before the season really got going.
The Dodgers, who at 14-2 started the season better than any defending World Series champion in history, appear to be exactly what they were expected to be.
The Padres (10-7) on Sunday kept alive the belief they might soon be as well.
They had been close in both of the series’ first two games, but proximity to the Dodgers is no longer the aim.
They lost the first game of the series after leaving runners at third base in two extra innings. The second game ended with two runners in scoring position when Mookie Betts made an improbable diving catch in center field.
They were 4-for-26 with runners in scoring position in the first two games.
They began the Sunday 1-for 6.
But Hosmer was 2-for-2 in that circumstance.
Machado singled in his first three at-bats, and after the third of those Hosmer’s double drove him in from second base to tie the game 2-2 in the seventh inning.
The battle of the 2018 American League and 2020 National League Cy Young award winners belonged to Trevor Bauer, if only by a bit.
He allowed a run on three hits, two of them by Machado, who is 11-for-19 against him in their career meetings, and the other a home run by Jake Cronenworth in the fourth inning.
Padres left-hander Blake Snell followed up his 38-pitch, two-out start Tuesday in Pittsburgh on by going five innings Sunday. He allowed just two hits, but they were in succession and the second one was a 443-foot blast by Chris Taylor that landed just beyond the ribbon scoreboard in left field.
Austin Adams, Keone Kela, Craig Stammen and Mark Melancon threw a scoreless inning apiece to close out the victory. Melancon earned his sixth save.
