LOS ANGELES—Jackson Merrill hit the go-ahead single in the 11th inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. homered and had three hits, and the San Diego Padres rallied for an 8–7 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night despite Shohei Ohtani hitting his 175th home run in the majors.
Tatis hit a two-run shot in the seventh inning to tie it at 7–all. Manny Machado, Ha-Seong Kim and Jake Cronenworth also went deep for the Padres, who trailed 7–3 after three innings.
“We’re a really good offensive team. We have ballplayers,” Tatis said. “We have guys that know how to play the game of baseball, that are gonna do what the game is asking for during the situations of the game, so that’s gonna carry us for the long run.”
With José Azocar as the automatic runner in the 11th, Vázquez had a two-out base hit to left field off Alex Vesia (0–2) to drive in the go-ahead run.
Robert Suarez (1-0) threw 1 1/3 hitless innings for the win.
San Diego won its first extra-inning game this season. The Padres lost their first 12 last year before winning a pair in the season’s final week.
“Guys took the good at-bats and Tatis makes the big swing,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Jackson found a way in the 11th inning off a tough lefty and down 0-2 to get it done. It is something he has shown also multiple times during the season.”
In the first inning, Ohtani drove an elevated outside fastball from Michael King 403 feet into the center-field stands, closing the Dodgers to 2–1. Ohtani tied Hideki Matsui for the most homers by a Japanese-born player.
“Honestly I’m very honored to be a part of this. I’m sure it’s a big deal in the baseball industry too,” Ohtani said through an interpreter.
Ohtani is batting .457 (16-for-35) during his eight-game hitting streak, including four homers, 12 extra-base hits and seven RBIs.
On Friday afternoon, a federal judge in Los Angeles ordered Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s former longtime interpreter, to undergo gambling addiction treatment in a sports betting case stemming from allegations he stole $16 million from Ohtani’s bank account to pay off debts.
Mookie Betts became the fourth player in the majors to reach six homers this season while Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy also went deep.
“At times we were very good at collecting hits and keeping the line moving. And then, it just seemed to me in the later innings we expanded the zone and our swings got bigger when all you need is a base hit,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We didn’t do a good job of controlling the strike zone. We got the lead but as they fought their way back we could have done a better job of finishing them off.”
San Diego took a 2–0 lead in the first when Machado drove a first-pitch curveball from Yoshinobu Yamamoto into the stands in left-center.
After Kim led off the second inning with a solo shot to make it 3–1, the Dodgers took the lead with four in the home half. Muncy began the inning with a drive to right field and Betts gave Los Angeles a 5–3 advantage with a three-run shot to left-center.
King appeared as if he was going to get out of the inning allowing only one run, but second baseman Xander Bogaerts booted a routine grounder by Gavin Lux to put runners at first and second when Betts came up to bat.
Betts also made a leaping catch near the stands in foul territory on the third-base side on a ball hit by Luis Campusano.
Hernández gave the Dodgers a four-run advantage in the fourth with a two-run line drive into the Padres’ bullpen in right field for his fifth of the season.
Cronenworth started the Padres’ rally with a solo shot in the sixth. San Diego tied in the seventh with three runs on an RBI grounder by Bogaerts and Tatis’ homer.
Both starters went five innings. Yamamoto allowed three runs, four hits and struck out six while King gave up seven runs (three earned) on six hits with four strikeouts.
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler (elbow) was hit on the pitching hand by a comebacker in the second inning during a rehab start for Class A Rancho Cucamonga. Buehler was scheduled to make around 80 pitches.
San Diego RHP Matt Waldron (0–1, 3.86 ERA) will be opposed by Los Angeles RHP Gavin Stone (0–1, 7.88 ERA) on Saturday night.
