Padres 5, Dodgers 1
LOS ANGELES -- Matt Kemp hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to lead the San Diego Padres to a 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.
Kemp added a double and scored a run to finish 2-for-4 with three RBIs, and threw out a runner trying to extend a single into a double, as the Padres broke a five-game losing streak.
Wil Myers' 12-game hitting streak, matching a career best, ended.
Left-hander Ryan Buchter received the victory in relief, and right-hander Carlos Villanueva registered his first save. Buchter struck out one batter in his two-thirds of an inning and Villanueva permitted one hit while striking out one in his only inning.
Right-hander Cesar Vargas, who made his major-league debut for the Padres on Saturday night, pitched 5 1/3 shutout innings in his second start. Vargas allowed four hits, three walks and a hit batter, collected six strikeouts and induced six groundouts while throwing 90 pitches.
Yasmani Grandal hit his first home run of the season and registered two of the Dodgers' five hits.
Left-hander Alex Wood amassed a season-high nine strikeouts in his seven innings while conceding just one walk, one run and five hits. But the hosts suffered their fifth successive loss and sixth in eight games.
The Padres broke a 1-1 tie in the eighth against right-handed reliever Chris Hatcher (2-3). Pinch-hitter Brett Wallace began the inning with a walk, then pinch-runner Travis Jankowski replaced him. Jon Jay followed with a ground ball that ricocheted off Hatcher's glove past third baseman Justin Turner and into short left field. Jankowski took third base on Jay's single.
Kemp propelled Hatcher's 88 mph breaking pitch on an 0-2 count into the Dodgers' bullpen in down the left-field line for his seventh home run of the season.
San Diego extended its lead in the ninth against Los Angeles closer Kenley Jansen. Adam Rosales hit a leadoff double to left, took third base on Jemile Weeks' sacrifice and scored on Jankowski's bunt single.
The Dodgers had a chance to move ahead in the bottom of the third after Corey Seager lined a leadoff double into right-center field. But Vargas struck out Justin Turner and Adrian Gonzalez, then induced a pop out from Yasiel Puig to defuse the threat.
The Padres responded by taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth. Kemp doubled off the center-field wall with one out, then scored when Melvin Upton Jr. lined a single just past second baseman Chase Utley's out-stretched glove and into center field.
Kemp began the bottom of the fourth by using his defense to frustrate his former teammates. Catcher Yasmani Grandal began the inning by lining a single off the right-field scoreboard. But Kemp retrieved the ball and threw out Grandal, who tried to stretch his hit into a double.
Nevertheless, the Dodgers put the potential tying run in scoring position in that inning with two out, when Joc Pederson hit a slow roller down the third-base line for a single and Wood walked. But Vargas struck out Utley to end the inning.
But Grandal succeeded in scoring the tying run when he hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth. On a 3-1 pitch from reliever Brad Hand, Grandal pounded a 92 mph fastball into the bleachers down the left-field line.
NOTES: Los Angeles won nine consecutive games against San Diego going into Friday night's game. ... Dodgers 3B Justin Turner re-entered the line-up after getting a day off to rest his left knee, which underwent off-season microfracture surgery. ... The Padres' starting pitchers have compiled a 3.12 earned-run average in the past 15 games and amassed 76 strikeouts compared to 37 walks going into Friday night.