Dodgers 4, Padres 3
SAN DIEGO -- Pinch-hitter Alex Guerrero singled home Andre Ethier with the tie-breaking run with two-out in the eighth-inning Friday night to give the Los Angeles Dodgers a come-from-behind 4-3 win over the Padres at Petco Park.
Guerrero's soft liner to center capped a two-run Dodgers eighth after the Padres had scored three in the bottom of the seventh against Clayton Kershaw and reliever Yimi Garcia on homers by Clint Barmes and Derek Norris.
For 6 1/3 innings, Dodgers ace Kershaw blanked the Padres on three hits and a walk while striking out 11. But the Padres rallied from a 2-0 deficit homers by shortstop Barmes and catcher Norris sandwiching an error.
Barmes' second homer of the season, a 375-foot, one-out drive to left off Kershaw, put the Padres on the board. After Kershaw retired pinch-hitter Cory Spangenberg on a grounder to first on his 117th pitch, the left-hander gave way to right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia.
Garcia got first baseman Wil Myers to pop up in front of the plate, but the ball fell to the turf after Garcia got tangled up with Justin Turner – who was playing first following the ejection of Adrian Gonzalez in the top of the inning. Turner was charged with the error.
Norris followed with a 360-foot drive down the line in left that gave the Padres a short-lived 3-2 lead.
The Dodgers answered by opening the eighth with three straight hits against Padres reliever Dale Thayer -- an opposite-field double by second baseman Howie Kendrick, a run-scoring single by Turner and a single by Ethier.
Shortly after right-hander Shawn Kelley replace Thayer, Turner was picked off on a throw from Norris. But Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis drew a walk, to move Ethier to second, just ahead of Guerrero's single. Ethier scored just ahead of Ellis being thrown out at third on center fielder Melvin Upton Jr.'s throw.
Garcia (3-2) got the win for the Dodgers with Kenley Jansen getting his eighth save by striking out the side around a single Myers. Thayer (2-1) suffered the loss for the Padres.
The Dodgers, with the help of the Padres defense, scored single runs in the third and fourth to stake Kershaw to a 2-0 lead.
Both runs scored on two-out singles.
Despaigne retired the first two Dodgers he faced in the third then hit the Dodgers lead-off man and center fielder Joc Pederson with a pitch. Right fielder Yasiel Puig hit a chopper toward third that Padres third baseman Will Middlebrooks changed and failed to make a bare-hand grab-and-throw for an error.
First baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who is hitting .444 against his former team this season with 11 RBIs, grounded a single to center to drive in Pederson with the game's first run.
Third baseman Justin Turner singled to open the fourth and moved to second on left fielder Andre Ethier's grounder to short. With two out, catcher A.J. Ellis, who was hitting .136, hit a short fly to left that fell just in front of Padres left fielder Justin Upton for a single.
Meanwhile, the Padres had runners on base in five of the first six innings against Kershaw but were 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.
The Dodgers threatened again in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with one out on Ellis's second single and walks issued by left-handed reliever Frank Garces to the first two hitters he faced. But Garces got Gonzalez to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Gonzalez was ejected by plate umpire Doug Eddings after the play for protesting a strike call earlier in the at-bat.
Despaigne worked 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
NOTES: The Dodgers promoted 30-year-old Cuban INF Hector Olivera to Triple-A Oklahoma City on Friday after only six games at Double-A Tulsa. The Dodgers signed Olivera to a six-year, $62.5 million contract earlier this season. ... The Dodgers acquired INF Ronald Torreyes, 22, from Toronto for cash considerations and assigned him to Tulsa. ... In a corresponding move, the Dodgers designated INF Darwin Barney for assignment. ... RHPs Joaquin Benoit and Brandon Maurer were unavailable to the Padres Friday. Both had worked two of the last three games and five of the last seven. ... LHP Cory Luebke, who has had two Tommy John surgeries since he last pitched early in the 2012 season, will start and pitch one inning for high Single-A Lake Elsinore Saturday.