Padres Draw Shohei Ohtani In Pivotal Rubber Match For NL West Division Lead

The San Diego Padres were tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers going into the ninth inning of Tuesday night’s game but a rare mistake from Major League Baseball’s top closer allowed the Dodgers to take the game and a half-game lead over the Padres for first place in the National League West.

The Dodgers and Padres exchanged two-run home runs in the first inning, with Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman hitting a wall-scraper to left field and San Diego third baseman Manny Machado belting a 404-foot blast to center field to even the score at 2.

Padres designated hitter Miguel Andujar stayed hot and hit his second homer of the series, a two-run shot of his own to put San Diego in front 4-2 in the third inning, but the Dodgers would score runs on a Shohei Ohtani groundout in the fifth, another Freeman homer in the sixth and a Andy Pages sacrifice fly in the ninth to defeat the Padres 5-4.

Mason Miller entered the game in the ninth and got the first batter he faced to fly out before walking third baseman Max Muncy. Alex Call pinch-ran for Muncy and advanced from first to third on a botched pickoff attempt by Miller, leading to the sac fly that gave Miller his first loss of the season.

Despite Miller putting the baserunner on and his error causing the run to eventually score, the run wasn’t charged to his ERA and it dropped to 0.79.

The Padres were able to get to Dodgers right-hander Emmet Sheehan, as he pitched four innings and allowed four runs on five hits and one walk with two strikeouts. Padres righty Griffin Canning held his own and left the game with a lead, pitching five innings and allowing three runs on four hits and one walk while fanning five.

The rubber match of the series will decide which team owns sole possession of first place in the NL West, and the teams will call on a couple of great right-handers to start the contest.

Ohtani will go for the Dodgers while Randy Vasquez will suit up for the Padres. Ohtani has pitched like a Cy Young candidate, going 3-2 with a 0.82 ERA and 0.82 WHIP with 50 punchouts through seven starts (44 innings).

Ohtani last pitched against the San Francisco Giants a week ago and threw seven scoreless innings, allowing four hits and two walks while fanning eight.

Vasquez is 5-1 with a 2.68 ERA and 1.11 WHIP with 45 strikeouts through nine starts (50.1 innings). He has stepped up in a big way for a thin Padres starting rotation and continued that trend during his last outing, throwing six four-hit innings and striking out three against the Seattle Mariners.

First pitch is at 5:40 p.m. PDT on MLB.TV and regional sports networks.