Back-to-back Homers Again Carry Dodgers Past Padres 8-3

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts and Corey Seager homered back-to-back in the first inning, Justin Turner and AJ Pollock did the same in the fourth, and the Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the San Diego Padres with an 8-3 victory Thursday night.

The defending World Series champions remained two games behind NL West-leading San Francisco after the Giants beat Arizona 5-4 with a walk-off hit in the ninth inning. The Dodgers won their 12th in a row at home and are set to close out the regular season with three home games against NL Central-champion Milwaukee while the Giants will host San Diego.

The sellout crowd of 52,550 was still settling in when Betts launched his 23rd homer to left-center and Seager followed with his 15th to the lower right-field seats off Vince Velasquez (3-9).

The Dodgers extended the lead to 4-1 on Turner's 26th homer and Pollock's 20th in the fourth.

Their blasts gave the Dodgers a combined nine homers in seven innings over two games. Betts homered to start a comeback in the seventh on Wednesday night, and Max

Muncy, Pollock, Cody Bellinger and Seager slugged homers in the eighth to eventually win 11-9.

Seager added a solo shot in the seventh.

Fernando Tatis Jr. blasted a two-run, 467-foot shot — his NL-leading 42nd — that cleared the left-field pavilion in the fifth, drawing the Padres to 4-3. Webster Rivas, who walked leading off, scored. Tatis snapped an 0-for-14 skid dating to last Friday.

Ha-Seong Kim homered for the Padres in the second.

The Dodgers tacked on three runs in the sixth for a 7-3 lead. Will Smith and Bellinger had RBI singles and Pollock had a sacrifice fly.

Corey Knebel (4-0) got the win with 1 1/3 innings of relief. He allowed one hit and struck out one.

Velasquez gave up four runs and six hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked one.

The Padres lost their last nine games against the Dodgers.

 (© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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