Manny Machado put the Padres ahead with one swing, then widened the lead without another. His two-run homer in the fourth and sacrifice fly in the fifth drove in three as San Diego beat the Dodgers 5-1 Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, one night after Los Angeles shut the Padres out.
Dustin Harris started the fourth with a single off Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Machado followed by driving his 29th home run of the season out with two strikes, turning a scoreless game into a 2-0 Padres lead. The Dodgers answered in the bottom half when Tommy Edman's sacrifice fly brought home Teoscar Hernández, but they did not score again.
San Diego immediately rebuilt the cushion. Ethan Salas singled to open the fifth, and Fernando Tatis Jr. followed with his third hit of the night. Harris hit a ground ball that became a fielder's choice and a Yamamoto throwing error, allowing Salas to score while Tatis reached third. Machado's fly ball then brought Tatis home for a 4-1 lead.
The Padres scored twice in that inning with one hit. Pressure did the rest: two runners aboard, a ball that demanded a defensive play and a productive out from the middle of the order. The sequence contrasted with Tuesday's five-hit shutout, when San Diego could not connect baserunners to a run.
Robbie Ray did not work deep enough to qualify for the win. He allowed seven hits and one earned run over 3 1/3 innings, walking one and striking out two. The bullpen carried the remaining 5 2/3 without yielding a run. David Morgan completed the fourth, Yuki Matsui handled the fifth and Bradgley Rodriguez covered two innings with three strikeouts to earn the win.
Adrian Morejon followed with a scoreless eighth, and Mason Miller struck out two in the ninth. The Dodgers finished with 10 hits, two more than San Diego, but stranded traffic after the fourth. Los Angeles could put a runner on; it could not assemble the second and third actions needed to erase the deficit against five Padres relievers.
Rodriguez earned the decision with two scoreless innings, allowing one hit and one walk. The Padres' relievers collectively gave up only three hits after Ray departed. That distribution changed the meaning of the Dodgers' 10-hit total: seven came against the starter, and the lineup could not reproduce that contact once San Diego began changing pitchers.
Freddy Fermin added insurance in the ninth with a single that scored Samad Taylor. Tatis finished 3-for-5, Machado went 1-for-4 with the homer and three RBIs, and Salas reached on his fifth-inning single before scoring. Yamamoto took the loss after the Padres made the middle innings count, including the throwing error that extended their advantage.
San Diego improved to 88-70, while Los Angeles moved to 97-61. The standings gap remains, but the two-game sequence showed the Padres a postseason requirement in miniature. Tuesday's offense never built an inning. Wednesday, Machado supplied the damage, the lineup added pressure around him and the bullpen protected every run after Ray left.