Tyler Anderson, Cody Bellinger finish off Dodgers sweep of Padres

Padres owner Peter Seidler was interviewed during the ESPN ‘Sunday Night Baseball’ broadcast, saying of the Dodgers, “They’re the dragon up the freeway that we’re trying to slay.”

San Diego made incredible strides in roster building this week and in recent years, which should help the Padres both in this postseason and future Octobers. But for now, the Dodgers are the class of the National League West, finishing off a sweep of San Diego with a 4-0 win on Sunday.

Los Angeles, which allowed only four runs in the three-game series, leads second-place San Diego by 15½ games.

Tyler Anderson did the slaying on Sunday, adding to his magical season with seven scoreless innings against San Diego. The left-hander allowed only two singles and a walk, and erased one of those runners on a double play, facing just two batters over the minimum.

Anderson, the Dodgers innings leader this season, lowered his ERA to 2.72 while striking out three. With the win, Anderson joined Tony Gonsolin in the 13-1 club, and pitched at least seven frames for the sixth time in 2022, most on the team.

This season at home, Anderson is 7-0 with a 2.30 ERA. This was Anderson’s first start at Dodger Stadium since Vin Scully’s death. His first start in Los Angeles came in September 2016, in Scully’s final home broadcast of his 67-year career, won by the Dodgers in the 10th inning by a Charlie Culberson walk-off home run.

Say it loud

Juan Soto was mic’d up for the bottom of the third inning, a feature that’s grown more prominent on exclusive broadcasts (ESPN Sunday night, Fox Saturdays, Peacock Sunday mornings come to mind). It’s usually a tough needle to thread getting compelling conversation with a player in the field actively playing in a game, but Soto was about as engaging as one could hope given the situation.

The conversation lasted perhaps longer than Soto would have liked, with the Dodgers hitting the ball consistently hard against Yu Darvish for the first time in the game. Cody Bellinger got things going with a home run to center field, during which Soto yelled “Stay here” multiple times trying to keep in the ballpark, to no avail.

After a Mookie Betts double, Trea Turner nearly added an extra-base hit of his own, only to have Soto track it down near the warning track in right field. Soto is great friends with Turner, having been his teammate for four seasons in Washington, and Soto even famously showed up to Dodger Stadium in last year’s wild card game wearing a Turner jersey to support his former teammate.

Naturally, Soto right after catching Turner’s drive laughed and said, “Now he’s gonna get mad at me.”

Bellinger added another solo home run to essentially the same spot in the seventh against Luis García. It was the second multi-home run game this season, along with April 24 in San Diego.

Of Bellinger’s fifteen home runs this season, a third are against the Padres.

The Dodgers outscored the Padres 20-4 during the weekend series, and on the season are 8-2 against San Diego, outscoring them 55-18.

Sunday particulars

Home runs: Cody Bellinger 2 (15)

WP — Tyler Anderson (13-1): 7 IP, 2 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts

LP — Yu Darvish (10-5): 6 IP, 7 hits, 2 runs, 5 strikeouts

Up next

After eighteen game days in a row, the Dodgers get their first post-break off day on Monday, then get another one on Thursday. In between, the Twins are in town for LA’s final interleague home series of 2022. Julio Urías starts the series opener on Tuesday night (7:10 p.m., SportsNet LA), with right-hander Joe Ryan pitching for Minnesota.