SAN DIEGO — They had some catching up to do.
The 2025 season went over 60 games without baseball’s spiciest neighborhood war, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres finally renewing hostilities this week. Meeting for the first time since last fall’s compelling National League Division Series, they exchanged leads like angry looks Monday night.
The two rivals couldn’t settle their differences in just nine innings, needing 10 before the Dodgers claimed an 8-7 victory over the Padres.
The Dodgers came into this season’s first matchup with their starting rotation in a perpetual state of depletion. The Padres, meanwhile, had managed no more than three runs in any of their previous four games or eight of their previous 10.
None of that mattered.
The Padres had right-hander Nick Pivetta taking the ball. The well-traveled right-hander signed as a free agent last winter has found a home in San Diego – literally. He went into Monday unbeaten in six starts at Petco Park this season with a 1.69 ERA in those starts, holding opposing hitters to a .164 batting average (21 for 128).
That didn’t matter either.
The Dodgers made themselves at home against Pivetta, scoring nearly as many runs in four innings against him on Monday (five) as he had allowed in all of those previous home starts combined (seven).
The Dodgers sent 18 batters to the plate in the first three innings, going 7 for 15 against Pivetta and forcing him to throw 72 pitches.
Doubles by Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman plus a throwing error by Manny Machado and a sacrifice fly by Will Smith produced two runs in the first inning. Five hits, including a two-run home run from Smith, produced three more runs in the third inning.
Like parking spots and reasonably priced hotel rooms, outs were hard to come by for Dodgers starter Dustin May as well. He gave up three consecutive hits to start the first inning, walking four of nine batters at one point, gave up a bases-loaded two-out triple to Tyler Wade and twice let two-run leads get away.
He did put up scoreless innings in the fourth and fifth and left with the game tied 5-5 thanks to an RBI double by Hyeseong Kim, setting up a battle of the bullpens.
It turns out – that’s where the outs were hiding the whole time.
Anthony Banda followed May with two perfect innings. Sean Reynolds, Jeremiah Estrada and Adrian Morejon kept the Dodgers in check through the eighth inning – but only after Morejon created his own trouble with a throwing error on a soft comebacker off Ohtani’s bat. Morejon struck out Freeman to atone.
The dam finally broke in the 10th inning when Padres left fielder Brandon Lockridge misjudged Andy Pages’ drive. It went over his head for an RBI double, the Dodgers’ first hit since the fifth inning. Tommy Edman added an RBI single.
This two-run lead stuck – but only after being down-sized. Tanner Scott got a favorable full-count call to strike out an angry Machado but gave up an RBI double to Jackson Merrill before closing out the win.
More to come on this story.
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