Rushing Goes 4-for-4, LAD Erases 6-Run Hole to Torch SD
Down 6-0 after two innings, the Dodgers scored 12 unanswered runs to beat the Padres 12-7 on July 3. Dalton Rushing went 4-for-4 with a home run, 4 RBI, and 3 runs scored — the night before he's slated to catch Shohei Ohtani's pitching start.
San Diego came out swinging. Manny Machado launched a 408-foot shot to center in the first, scoring Tatis Jr. to make it 2-0. The second inning got uglier fast: Jackson Merrill went deep to left center (383 feet), then Jake Cronenworth followed with a 383-foot blast to right center that plated Bogaerts and Tatis Jr. — suddenly it was 6-0 Padres, and German Marquez looked like he might cruise. He didn't. Rushing answered immediately with a 394-foot center-field homer that scored Tucker, cutting the deficit to 6-2 before the inning was done.
The Dodgers chipped away in the third — a Muncy double scored Betts, then Tucker singled home Muncy — and then the fourth inning is where this game broke open for good. Pages doubled to left, scoring Edman and Rushing to tie it at 6. The win probability swung from 46% to 70% on that single swing. Betts doubled home Pages two batters later, Muncy singled in Betts, and just like that Los Angeles had turned a six-run deficit into an 8-6 lead without San Diego recording an out in response. The fifth piled on: Edman doubled to right to score Rushing, then Padres reliever Matsui threw two wild pitches — each one gifting the Dodgers another run. It was 10-6 before San Diego could breathe.
Rushing wasn't finished. He added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to score Tucker, then singled home Tucker again in the eighth to make it 12-6. The Padres got a consolation run in the ninth on an Andujar single, but the final was 12-7 Los Angeles. The story of the night was the Dodgers' lineup depth — Kyle Tucker also went 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored, and Muncy contributed 2 RBI on 2-for-5 hitting. On the pitching side, Will Klein gave LAD two innings of one-hit, zero-run ball to keep the deficit from ballooning further, and Vesia and Henriquez each tossed a scoreless frame. For San Diego, Cronenworth's three-run homer looks like the high point of a night that got away from them in a hurry — the Padres had already dropped a 23-run game to the Cubs recently, and this one, while less lopsided, stings in its own way given how commanding that early lead appeared.