LOS ANGELES ― The Dodgers’ offense still isn’t firing on all cylinders.
Two was all they needed Saturday night.
Mookie Betts’ three-run home run against Craig Stammen in the fifth inning powered the Dodgers to a 5-4 win over the San Diego Padres before an announced crowd of 46,969 at Dodger Stadium.
Betts and Gavin Lux combined to go 4 for 5. The rest of the Dodgers went 0 for 20. But they provided enough run support for starter Walker Buehler, who allowed only a home run to Fernando Tatís Jr. before the Dodgers’ bullpen locked down the team’s 90th victory of the season.
Betts’ 20th home run of the season broke a 2-2 tie and came on the heels of a single by Lux and a walk by Buehler. That marked the end of the road for Padres starter Chris Paddack (7-7).
Enter Stammen, who left a fastball down the middle of the plate on his first pitch to Betts, only to see it leave the park a moment later.
“He’s been really good keeping it out of the middle off the plate,” Betts said of Stammen. “I was just ready to hit.”
The Dodgers held their 5-2 lead into the eighth inning, when normally reliable reliever Blake Treinen encountered trouble.
Treinen threw a fastball that grazed the jersey of the first batter, Adam Frazier. Frazier stole second base, then scored on a Manny Machado single. Machado stole second base himself and scored when Tatís dumped a single into left field.
Suddenly, San Diego was down by a run with a runner in scoring position and no outs. Both runs in the eighth inning were charged to Treinen, who had allowed only two runs across 26 appearances since the All-Star break.
“Blake’s been such a workhorse,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “It seems like I count on him every night. He didn’t have his best stuff. It was nice for us to pick him up.”
With a runner on third base and one out, right-hander Joe Kelly relieved Treinen and struck out Wil Myers and Tommy Pham to end the inning. Kelly needed only seven pitches to complete the task.
“Obviously Blake has been unbelievable for us all year,” Buehler said. “For Joe to come in and pick him up is huge for us. When Joe Kelly’s healthy he’s pretty electric. He showed that tonight. We’re glad to have both of those guys on our team.”
Pitching for the third consecutive day, Kenley Jansen threw a scoreless ninth inning to record his 32nd save of the season.
The Dodgers (90-53) remain 2 ½ games behind the San Francisco Giants for first place in the National League West. They can complete a three-game sweep of the Padres (74-67) with a win in Sunday’s series finale.
The Dodgers used the bottom of their lineup to score a couple runs in the third inning, a missing component in their offensive attack for much of the last month.
Cody Bellinger, mired in a season-long slump, drew a walk. Bellinger wasn’t supposed to be in the starting lineup, as Roberts indicated Friday that he preferred to give Bellinger an extra day to work out of his 0 for 24 slide. But with Chris Taylor bothered by a neck injury, Bellinger stepped in to play center field and hit seventh.
The next batter was Lux, who was making his second consecutive start in left field. With the Padres shifted to the right side, Lux lined a fastball over a vacant left side of the infield. Pham overran the ball in left field, allowing Bellinger to score all the way from first base.
It was Lux’s first hit in a Dodger uniform since July 16. He took third base on a sacrifice bunt by Buehler, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Betts. The Dodgers had a 2-0 lead.
Buehler pitched seven innings and allowed two runs, walked two batters, and struck out five. With one exception, he made pitches when he needed to.
In the third inning, Buehler threw Machado a first-pitch slider over the plate; the former Dodger lined the ball through the left side of the infield for a single. Buehler started the next batter, Tatís, with a slider over the plate too. That ball came to rest an estimated 400 feet from home plate over the center field fence. Tatís’ National League-leading 38th home run of the season tied the game at 2.
Coming off his shortest start of the season ― a three-inning loss Sunday in San Francisco with first place on the line ― Buehler regained the form that’s made him a contender for the Cy Young Award.
“At some point some part of you has to get rid of it, or forget about it,” Buehler said of his previous start. “We’ve got a lot of guys throwing the ball well. I want to be part of that group. Probably wasn’t my best but thankfully with our offense and the guys behind me it was enough.”
