The Dodgers (29-19) came into San Diego (29-18) on a five game winning streak and with a half game lead over the Padres, but saw both of those disappear last night in a 1-0 loss. Yoshinobu Yamamoto left a splitter up to Miguel Andujar in the bottom of the first inning, and that was the end of the scoring in what was the quintessential Padres win this season. They have a dominant bullpen with the best closer in the game and one good starting pitcher in Michael King. King completely shut the Dodgers down over seven scoreless innings, and despite putting runners in scoring position in both the eighth and ninth innings, the Dodgers were unable to scratch any runs across. Emmet Sheehan will be on the mound tonight looking to build upon a great start against the Giants, while Griffin Canning makes his fourth start for San Diego.
6:40 P.M.
San Diego
DH
Ohtani (L)
2B
Tatis Jr.
SS
Betts
DH
Andujar
1B
Freeman (L)
LF
Sheets (L)
RF
Tucker (L)
3B
Machado
C
Smith
SS
Bogaerts
3B
Muncy (L)
CF
Merrill (L)
CF
Pages
RF
Castellanos
LF
T. Hernández
1B
France
2B
Kim (L)
C
Fermin
P
Yamamoto (L)
P
King (R)
The Dodgers will deploy the exact same lineup as they used last night, hoping to actually score tonight. Shohei Ohtani reached three times and had two hits, Mookie Betts had one, Freddie Freeman walked twice, and both Andy Pages and Hyeseong Kim added a hit. The offense was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, and both Betts and Ohtani got thrown out stealing against Rodolfo Durán, whose arm they clearly didn’t respect.
The Padres had just six total baserunners with Andujar reaching twice, Xander Bogaerts and Fernando Tatis Jr. each singling once, and a couple batters reaching via walk. It was a poor offensive performance from San Diego which has become far too common for them in 2026, but it was enough to get the win.
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Here’s how Canning and Sheehan have fared this season. Canning is making just his fourth start of the year, while Sheehan has made eight full turns through the rotation.
Sheehan was better than his final line would suggest his last time out against the Giants, where he allowed two earned runs over six innings, earning his third win of the season. He was cruising into the sixth inning and had two outs with a runner on first base, when Jung Hoo Lee hit an “inside the park home run” which was basically just Teoscar Hernández misplaying a double that would’ve resulted in runners on second and third. It’s no guarantee that Sheehan gets Luis Arraez out in that situation like he ended up doing with the bases empty, but it’s quite likely those two earned runs could’ve been avoided. It could’ve been six scoreless innings with just two hits allowed, but regardless Sheehan came out with the win in an encouraging outing. He sat 94.8 mph on his fastball in that outing, sustaining that into his final inning, and racked up ten whiffs on the four-seamer which had been getting destroyed. San Diego in theory is a bad offense, but the stars could step up at any moment.
Canning has thrown just 11.0 innings this season, as he was recovering from a ruptured achilles tendon that cut his 2025 season short. He had a career best 3.77 ERA with the Mets in 16 starts and 76.1 innings pitched last season before going down with the season ending injury. He has unfortunately gotten demolished his last two outings, giving up six earned runs in back-to-back outings, most recently lasting just 1.2 innings against the Brewers. His velocity and stuff have been fine, and the same as last season when he seemed to take a step forward, so the Padres can likely expect better performance moving forward. The hope with all their starters seems to be that they can keep it close enough to hand off to their bullpen in the sixth or seventh inning. He throws a changeup that averages 90 mph as his primary pitch, with his four-seamer sitting in the mid-90’s to accompany the change. He also throws a sinker in the mid-90’s, using a mid-80’s slider as his only breaking ball. The Dodgers surely will be able to hit a struggling starter….right?
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In other news,
It’ll be interesting to see if the Dodgers can most importantly get Eric Lauer to pitch well again, but also how they decide to deploy him.
The Dodgers uniquely have the pitchers that can benefit significantly from extended rest, as well as the personnel to make it possible.
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First pitch is at 6:40 PT on SNLA.
