Freddie Freeman had a home run among his season-high-tying four hits, Will Smith added a three-run blast and the Los Angeles Dodgers earned an 11-2 victory over the visiting San Diego Padres on Tuesday.
Freeman scored a season-high four runs and drove in two on his 34th birthday. Smith had three runs and two hits and Lance Lynn (11-11) gave up two runs on five hits over seven innings as the Dodgers (88-56) reduced their magic number for clinching the National League West to five.
Lynn walked two and struck out three.
Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a home run for the Padres (68-78), who rallied from five runs down to defeat the Dodgers on Monday but could not recover from a six-run deficit through four innings on Tuesday.
San Diego starter Michael Wacha (11-4) gave up seven runs on seven hits with three walks in four innings in his worst start since also giving up seven runs on April 14.
Freeman was active from the start, delivering a first-inning single and scoring the Dodgers’ first run on a Max Muncy sacrifice fly. After Enrique Hernandez singled in the third inning, Freeman hit a two-run home run to left-center field, his 26th blast of the season. David Peralta made it 4-0 later in the third on an RBI fielder’s choice.
The Padres loaded the bases against Lynn with no outs in the fourth inning but scored just once, on a Trent Grisham bunt.
Hernandez and Freeman singled in the bottom of the fourth before Smith went deep for a 7-1 lead. It was Smith’s 18th homer of the season.
Tatis got one of the runs back in the fifth with a home run to right center, his 24th. It was the major-league-leading 41st long ball allowed by Lynn this season.
The Dodgers piled on two more runs in the seventh, one on a bloop single from Chris Taylor and another on a sacrifice fly from James Outman.
In the eighth, Freeman doubled and scored on a single by J.D. Martinez, giving him a career-high 121 runs on the season.
Los Angeles right-hander Kyle Hurt made his major league debut and retired all six batters he faced on a total of 24 pitches. The 25-year-old struck out the side in the ninth.
The Dodgers are still just 5-6 in September following a historic August in which they went 24-5. The Padres lost for the third time in four games.
–Field Level Media
