The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 8-2 to avoid a series sweep and move into a tie for first in the NL West. The Dodgers scored early against Nick Pivetta, with the first three baserunners reaching and Teoscar Hernández delivering a sacrifice fly. Ramon Laureano robbed Hernández of a potential grand slam, but Los Angeles still hit four home runs, including two by Freddie Freeman. The team drew four walks and saw more pitches with an improved game plan and better at-bats. Freeman credited confidence from early offense and acknowledged the Padres' pitching staff as playoff-caliber and difficult to string hits against.
"I think it's just more sometimes a couple things go your way and you get some confidence going,"
"Getting those guys on the first inning and scoring was huge. Even though we could've gotten more, just getting one run across was a big boost for us coming off the last couple of games where we hadn't gotten a couple runs."
"This pitching staff is a playoff pitching staff. When you're in the playoffs, it's really hard to get three hits in a row off guys of this caliber," he said. "To get a walk, work counts, get guys on and then you hit the home run, that's kind of how it has to go. "You saw the first game for them, getting three hits in a row off Blake Snell is incredibly hard to do. They put three sac bunts down, so I think you saw a different brand of b
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