LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Snell limited his former team to five hits in six innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers regained the NL West lead with a 6-0 victory over the San Diego Padres on Saturday night.
The Dodgers drew six walks over the first two innings against Padres right-hander Dylan Cease, when they scored five runs on just one hit. Teoscar Hernandez hit his 20th homer of the season in the fifth inning.
Michael Conforto had a two-run single in the first inning for Los Angeles (70-53), which pulled even with San Diego (69-54) by winning the opener Friday. The Padres had taken sole possession of first place in the division Wednesday.
Snell (3-1) was making his first start against the Padres after leaving the club following the 2023 season, when he won the NL Cy Young Award. He walked two and struck out three.
Cease (5-11) gave up two hits but walked six in 3 1/3 innings. He allowed five runs — three earned.
The first three Dodgers batters of the game – Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Will Smith – all walked and scored in the first inning.
Ohtani and Smith also walked in the second and scored when Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill dropped Freddie Freeman's flyball at the warning track in right-center field.
Key moment
Cease was one out away from escaping his first-inning mess with just one run allowed until Conforto grounded a single into right field for a 3-0 Dodgers lead.
Key stat
San Diego made three of its first four outs of the game on stolen-base attempts, as Smith threw out Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts at second base in the first two innings.
Up next
Padres RHP Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.61 ERA) and Dodgers RHP Tyler Glasnow (1-1, 3.08) will face off Sunday afternoon in the finale of the three-game series.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Doug Padilla, The Associated Press