SAN DIEGO — Five-run leads aren’t what they’re cracked up to be.
For the third time in their past 13 games, that wasn’t enough to get the Dodgers a victory. They scored five times in the first inning against the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, then sat back and watched the lead disappear over the next eight innings.
It was only a two-run lead by the ninth inning and Blake Treinen gave up two solo home runs to tie the score before Donovan Solano’s walk-off RBI single in the 10th inning gave the Padres a 6-5 win.
The Padres have pushed their way back into the playoff picture with eight wins in their past nine games, whittling the Dodgers’ lead in the National League West to 5½ games, as small as it has been since June 1.
The Dodgers took a five-run lead into the ninth inning at Detroit on July 13 and lost. On Saturday, they led 5-0 after the top of the sixth and eventually lost to the Houston Astros.
With a Petco Park record crowd of 47,559 on hand, the Dodgers announced their presence with authority, taking that 5-0 lead after the first half-inning Tuesday.
The Dodgers’ deadline moves are certain to shake up their roster in the weeks ahead with the anticipated return of injured players. Two of the players likely to see their roles – or team – change had big hits in the big inning. Andy Pages drove in two runs with a single and Cavan Biggio bounced a fly ball off the foul pole down the right field line for a two-run home run.
Staked to that big early lead, Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow let most of it get away.
He gave up a solo home run to Manny Machado in the second inning and allowed two more runs in the third inning on consecutive hits by Luis Arraez (double), Jurickson Profar (RBI single) and Jake Cronenworth (RBI double).
Glasnow settled in after that and retired 12 of the next 15 batters he faced while completing seven innings for the first time since doing it in back-to-back starts in mid-June. Glasnow struck out eight while walking just one.
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It was the longest start by a Dodgers pitcher since Gavin Stone’s complete-game shutout in Chicago on June 26 – and left just two innings for the Dodgers’ taxed bullpen to cover.
Even that was too much to ask. The Dodgers’ bullpen hasn’t had a scoreless game since July 12 and now has a 6.75 ERA in 12 games since then.
Anthony Banda got through a scoreless eighth. But Machado crushed Blake Treinen’s first pitch of the ninth inning for a 414-foot solo home run. Two batters later, Jackson Merrill tied the score with a solo home run to right field.
The Dodgers went down quickly against Padres reliever Robert Suarez in the 10th inning, failing to advance their free runner. In the bottom of the 10th, walks loaded the bases and Solano slapped a ground ball down the third-base line to drive in the winning run.
More to come on this story.
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