Dodgers 4 - 3 Padres
Final
  for this game

Kershaw eyes fourth straight win in opener with Padres

Jun 12, 2015 - 2:29 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Reigning NL MVP Clayton Kershaw goes after a fourth straight winning start on Friday night as the Los Angeles Dodgers play the first of three straight meetings with the San Diego Padres.

Kershaw has allowed just two runs over his current personal winning streak and hurled eight scoreless innings to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 on Saturday. He yielded just one hit -- a second-inning single -- and walked two while striking out 11.

"I was able to get quick outs," Kershaw said. "I threw strikes and hoped for the best. It was my best slider/curveball combination (of the season)."

The left-hander is 4-1 over his past five starts and has fanned 45 batters over that span. He is 5-3 on the year overall with a 3.36 earned run average.

Kershaw is a solid 12-6 lifetime versus the Padres with a 2.33 ERA in 25 starts. He faced them in his season debut on April 6 and did not factor into a 6-3 win, charged with three runs over six frames while fanning nine.

The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner will try to push the Dodgers' winning streak to four straight games after they finished off a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks with Wednesday's 7-6 win.

Yasiel Puig went 4-for-4 at the plate and scored the game-winning run on Howie Kendrick's base hit in the ninth inning. Puig hit a three-run homer earlier in the game and is 9-for-15 with three doubles in four games since coming off the disabled list.

Kenley Jansen blew a save opportunity in the top of the ninth when A.J. Pollock crushed the first pitch he threw into the left-field bleachers for a solo homer, but his teammates picked him up in the home half.

The frame began with a pair of walks to Puig and Adrian Gonzalez. Kendrick followed with an opposite-field single off Daniel Hudson for the dramatic walk-off win.

"(Hudson) left a pitch up and I put a good swing on it," Kendrick said.

Yasmani Grandal added a solo homer for the Dodgers, who used five relievers behind an ineffective Brett Anderson.

The Padres return home following a 4-3 road trip, earning a split of a four- game set with the Atlanta Braves with Thursday's 6-4 victory in 11 innings.

San Diego tied the game in the eighth inning, scoring three runs on a passed ball, a bases-loaded walk and a catcher's interference call, then won the contest thanks to Yangervis Solarte's two-run single in the 11th.

The game started 56 minutes late because of rain and the benches cleared not long after that when Braves starter Julio Teheran hit Matt Kemp in the top of the first inning.

Order was kept and no punches were thrown, though Kemp and home plate umpire Jordan Baker went down in a heap near the first base line after Kemp slipped.

Baker later ejected Padres manager Bud Black for arguing that a ball hit an Atlanta player as he left the batter's box, and it only got stranger after that.

"This (was) a pretty intense series," Black said. "The tension was a little high."

The Padres, who have won six of their last nine games, will start Odrisamer Despaigne in tonight's opener and he has lost four of his last five decisions.

Despaigne gave up three runs over three starts prior to Sunday's 4-0 loss in Cincinnati. He gave up all four runs over six innings, serving up a three-run homer and a solo shot to the Reds' Jay Bruce. He yielded nine hits in all and fanned three without giving up a walk.

"He was victimized by a powerful hitter twice," said Padres manager Bud Black. "He was beat on two balls that were possibly above the zone."

The right-hander is 3-4 with a 4.72 ERA this season and 0-2 with a 5.84 ERA in three games (2 starts) versus the Dodgers.

The Dodgers have won six of nine against the Padres this season.






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