San Diego Routes Dodgers, 7-1, As Buehler Makes Successful Return To LA As A Padre

The San Diego Padres are in the middle of their biggest homestand of the season, and starter Walker Buehler helped the Padres continue their run as he shut down his old team on just three hits as the Pads beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-1. 

Buehler has been close to dominant since the Padres plugged him into their rotation at the beginning of the season, and he offered more of the same last night. 

He did allow the Dodgers to score first on a solo home run by Mookie Betts in the second inning, but the Padres got that run back and added two more on a three-run homer by Ty France off LA starter Roki Sasaki to give San Diego a 3-1 lead. 

Buehler lasted into the sixth as he wound up going 5-1/3 innings while giving up just three hits to go with five strikeouts and three walks. The Padres bullpen was nails again as Yuki Matsui, Jason Adam and Adrian Morejon picked up Buehler to keep the count at 3-1. 

The Padres broke the game open late with a four-run rally that featured a two run single by Sung-Mun Song, an RBI double by Rodolfo Duran and single from Fernando Tatis Jr. to make it a 7-1 route. It was yet another game in which the Padres second-tier players carried the offense as the Pads won their fourth straight game, and Wandy Peralta finished it up with a scoreless ninth. 

Buehler downplayed the LA return angle, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game that he knew the starter would come into this one with something to prove. 

“Yeah,” Buehler said in a piece written by AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. “I want to kick everyone’s [expletive]. I want to beat everyone.”

Still, this one was different. Buehler is on a remarkable run, as Cassavell noted that his ERA for June now sits at a sparkling 1.71. Buehler once dominated the Padres when he was with LA as he went 6-1 with a 1.80 against San Diego, and now he’s returning the favor from down the freeway. 

“I’m 1-0 against them as a San Diego Padre,” he said with a grin.

The win left San Diego eight games behind LA as they try and rally and get back in the race, and the Padres will try and clinch the series tonight as they send Randy Vasquez to the mound against Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the Dodgers.