Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing rebound with consecutive homers, Dodgers rout Padres

4 4 min Click here to listen to this article Share via Close extra sharing options Email Facebook X LinkedIn Threads Reddit WhatsApp Copy Link URL Copied! Print 0:00 0:00 1x This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here. See more from the L.A. Times in Google Search. Set us as preferred SAN DIEGO — One after another, Dodgers hitters Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing broke up their offensive slumps with home runs. The Dodgers’ game-winning rally in the sixth inning, en route to a 15-3 victory against the Padres at Petco Park Saturday, featured blasts from two of the hitters who most needed individual victories at the plate. Tucker, who entered Saturday with just a .700 OPS, had gone four straight games without a hit. Rushing went hitless in the previous five, in a rough seven-week stretch. Their home runs started the sunflower seed showers in a nine-run inning. Four of those runs were scored as unearned. The Dodgers’ Dalton Rushing celebrates with Alex Freeland after hitting a home run against the Padres Saturday in San Diego. (Tony Ding / Ap Photo/tony Ding) The Dodgers took full advantage of the Padres’ defensive mistakes to jump-start their offense. In the second inning, Max Muncy hit a line drive into the corner, and Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis dove after it. But he missed the catch, and the ball bounced behind him. Muncy legged out a triple. And that put him in position to score easily on Tommy Edman’s double to the center-field warning track for the first run of the game. The Padres evened the score with a Gavin Sheets’ solo home run off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’d go on to limit the Padres to two runs through six innings. Shaky defense, however, came back to haunt the Padres the next inning. Voices Shaikin: Did Padres curse themselves by messing with that anti-Dodgers FTD burger? The Padres changed the FTD burger on their menu. Since then, they’ve fallen well off the pace in the NL West. With Freddie Freeman standing on second base, after a leadoff double against Padres right-hander Randy Vásquez, Muncy hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Will Wagner, who muffed the play. Freeman raced around the bases, scoring on a close play at the plate. Then Edman, who’s been swinging a hot bat since making his season debut last week, tripled to drive in Muncy. That’s when Tucker, who went three for five with four RBIs Saturday, stepped up to the plate. He won a nine-pitch battle, sending a cutter over the right-field fence. Rushing was next, and also went long in a two-strike count. The Dodgers kept extending the inning, with two walks and three more hits, including Mookie Betts’ three-run homer off Padres reliever Ron Marinaccio. It was Betts’ third home run in as many games. The Padres chipped away at the lead with an RBI single from Sheets off Yamamoto in the sixth and another run against Dodgers reliever Kyle Hurt, who gave up two hits and issued two walks in one-third of an inning. But the lead the Dodgers compiled in the sixth inning, plus the four runs they tacked on in the eighth with Muncy’s infield single, Edman’s bases-loaded groundout, and Tucker’s opposite-field single, was too steep to overcome. By the ninth inning, both teams had position players pitching. The Dodgers hope to activate Teoscar Hernández (strained left hamstring) from the 10-day injured list on Monday, manager Dave Roberts said before Saturday’s game. Hernández homered in all three of his triple-A rehab games, entering Saturday. “Triple-A pitching is not comparative to big league pitching, I think we all know that,” Roberts said. “But if he’s healthy, he’s an easy guy to bet on.” Catcher Will Smith, on the other hand, has not returned to baseball activities since receiving an injection to address his neck injury. “I think we’re all surprised how long it’s taken,” Roberts said. “I hope he’s back before the All-Star break. But the more time he’s off, he’s going to have to play some [rehab] games. So that kind of cuts into the time of return to us. So I don’t really know. I don’t want to add any pressure to him. I want him to be healthy and then once he’s healthy we can have that conversation.”

Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing rebound with consecutive homers, Dodgers rout Padres

Key takeaways

More in local