The Padres ended a seven-game losing streak Sunday with a 5-2 win over the Dodgers, turning a tight midgame into a loss that stopped Los Angeles from finishing a sweep. Manny Machado’s three-run home run in the seventh inning broke it open, and the Dodgers never made that early pressure count.
That result matters now because the Padres had spent a week looking stuck, while the Dodgers were trying to keep rolling through the final week of the first half. Instead, San Diego got the reset it needed and Los Angeles lost more than the game: Freddie Freeman’s on-base streak ended at 19 games, and the Dodgers missed a chance to carry sweep momentum into Monday.
The game had the feel of a duel early. Emmet Sheehan and JP Sears each kept the other side hitless through the first three innings while allowing only one walk, and both lineups had to wait for the first crack. Manny Machado walked with one out in the fourth, Gavin Sheets followed with a single to break up the no-hit bid, and Jackson Merrill then drove in San Diego’s first run since Friday with a two-out RBI single.
Sheehan still gave the Dodgers a chance, allowing one run in 4 1/3 innings on 96 pitches, but Sears steadied after entering with a 6.97 ERA over his first two starts and worked five scoreless innings. Miguel Rojas ended Sears’ no-hit bid with a single up the middle in the fifth, and Shohei Ohtani, who went 1-3 with an RBI and a walk on his birthday, kept Los Angeles from fading quietly. Freddie Freeman reached base until the streak finally ran out at 19 games.
The turning point came in the seventh, when the Dodgers put two on with two out and had a real shot to tie it, but Adrián Morejón shut the door. That miss mattered because the Padres answered right away: Fernando Tatis Jr. doubled down the right field line, then delivered an RBI single for insurance before Machado lifted his three-run homer to center field. It was Machado’s 26th home run as a Padre against the Dodgers, moving him past Dave Winfield for the most in franchise history.
For Los Angeles, the loss left little room for celebration even with Alex Freeland, Ohtani and the late push to get back in it. Eliezer Alfonzo made his big league debut and went 0-2 before Tommy Edman pinch hit for him in the bottom of the seventh, a small reminder of how quickly a game can change from an opportunity to a chase. The Dodgers open a three-game home series against the Colorado Rockies on Monday at 7:10 p.m. PT on SportsNet LA, with Eric Lauer scheduled to face Kyle Freeland.
