Wrapped in the always tricky proposition of the Padres trying to beat the Dodgers was Blake Snell’s latest attempt to beat back his demons on Tuesday.
With the tying run at first base and a future Hall of Famer at the plate, Snell may have taken a big step toward doing both.
A strikeout of Albert Pujols brought an end to five scoreless and plucky innings by Snell that led the way to a 3-2 victory over the Dodgers.
It was the Padres’ second straight win over the Dodgers in front of a second straight sellout crowd at Petco Park. The Padres have won multiple series in a season against the Dodgers for the first time since 2016 and on Wednesday will try for their first sweep of the perennial National League West champions since 2013.
Their sixth straight victory overall improved the Padres to 35-0 when leading after seven innings.
This one was quite the adventure.
Nabil Crismatt threw a perfect sixth and seventh inning and then loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth before getting a double-play grounder that also got the Dodgers their first run.
Padres manager Jayce Tingler, whose taxed bullpen was without at least three of its primary back-end options, was left to call on a 23-year-old making his major league debut to come in and face the potential tying run.
With a runner on first base, Mason Thompson walked Max Muncy before getting AJ Pollock on a fielder’s choice grounder to third base.
Pinch-hitter Austin Barnes got the Dodgers to 3-2 with a one-out homer off Mark Melancon in the ninth inning. Gavin Lux grounded out to shortstop and Chris Taylor grounded a single up the middle before right fielder Wil Myers hauled in Justin Turner’s tailing line drive to end the game.
Snell, not yet three seasons removed from winning the American League Cy Young award, entered Tuesday with a 5.72 ERA.
“I’ve never been this bad,” the 28-year-old left-hander said recently. “It’s not fun to suck.”
The only other time in his six-year career he had a higher ERA was after allowing five runs in six innings in his first start of 2019.
Snell, acquired in a December trade with the Tampa Bay Rays to be placed near the top of the Padres rotation and help make them a legitimate challenger to the Dodgers’ run of eight straight division titles and their World Series reign, had in recent conversations sounded a tone that alternated between optimistic and frustrated.
“This is the best I’ve felt,” he said of his physical condition.
He also said, “Everything has gone wrong.”
Jake Cronenworth gave the Padres a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, his second two-run home run in two nights and third homer in four games.
That first-inning advantage was half as big as the one they had Monday, and their starting pitcher was not nearly as reliable.
Monday’s starter, Yu Darvish, was given a 4-0 lead in the first inning and had allowed four runs in a game just three times and gone at least six innings in nine starts this season. Snell had allowed at least five runs in three of his previous five starts.
He was, at least, at Petco Park, where he had his only two starts longer than five innings and took a 1.65 ERA and 0.98 WHIP into Tuesday’s game. It is in eight road starts that Snell has been horrid, posting a 10.36 ERA and 2.23 WHIP.
In his seventh start at Petco Park, Snell continued to feel at home. Tuesday was just the second time this season he completed five scoreless innings. The other time was when he shut out the Mets here over seven innings on June 4.
He still went deep into counts more than he would like and had to quash traffic on the bases enough that it swelled his pitch count to 79 after four innings Tuesday.
Snell navigated a 25-pitch first inning after a one-out double by Taylor, leaving runners at the corners.
He took a total of 27 pitches to get through the next two, retiring all six batters he faced.
Turner led off the fourth inning with a line drive single to right field, and the Dodgers would load the bases with two outs before Snell escaped.
Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw started the fifth with an infield single on a slow chopper to the right side. Mookie Betts followed with a fly ball to center field, and Snell struck out Taylor before Turner walked.
With the Cooperstown-bound Pujols about to stride to the plate, Tingler walked to the mound and after a long discussion that included his having a few words with home plate umpire Chris Segal, Tingler walked away without having called to the bullpen for Austin Adams.
A 95 mph fastball that Pujols swung through prompted a fist pump from catcher Webster Rivas and had Snell strutting off the mound as the crowd exulted.
They would only get louder — arguably the loudest “Beat LA” chant at Petco Park in several years — after Ha-seong Kim, pinch-hitting for Snell, launched a curveball from Kershaw into the left-field seats.
After Cronenworth’s 404-foot blast to right field, the first homer Kershaw allowed to a left-handed batter this season, the Dodgers’ lefty allowed just two baserunners over the next three innings and just four hits in his six innings.
The Dodgers got back one of the three regular position players that had been on the injured list. Muncy returned from a 10-day IL stay with an oblique strain and started at second base. Center fielder Cody Bellinger (hamstring) is expected to be activated for Wednesday’s series finale. The Padres won’t see shortstop Corey Seager (hand) until they next play the Dodgers in late August.
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