Cody Bellinger homers twice as Dodgers finish strong to beat Padres, 8-2

SAN DIEGO – After a close loss in San Francisco last week, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained why he had not asked young outfielder Andrew Toles to bunt in a situation that might have called for it.

“He’s not the bunter type,” Roberts said of Toles.

He still isn’t.

Toles tried once to put a bunt down with runners at first and second in the seventh inning with the Dodgers trailing by one and Corey Seager and Justin Turner lined up behind him. Toles failed on the bunt attempt, worked the count full and ripped a two-run double into the right-center field gap that opened the door for the Dodgers to beat the San Diego Padres, 8-2, on Friday night at Petco Park.

Until Toles starched a full-count fastball from Padres reliever Jose Torres, the Dodgers had managed just one run – on the first of Cody Bellinger’s two home runs in the game – and were in danger of wasting a second consecutive solid start from Kenta Maeda.

The Japanese right-hander’s spot in the Dodgers’ rotation was in doubt before he faced the Philadelphia Phillies last week. He held them to two runs over seven innings, striking out eight.

He followed that by holding the Padres to three hits over five innings, striking out eight again (including six consecutive batters at one point).

But a defensive mistake by Bellinger loomed as potentially decisive.

With one out and a runner on first in the fifth, Padres pitcher Jhoulys Chacin dropped a sacrifice bunt. Bellinger charged and made a poor decision, trying to get the lead runner at second base. He compounded it by making a bad throw.

Instead of having a runner on second with two outs, the Padres had runners at the corners with one out. That turned Manual Margot’s deep fly ball to center field from an inning-ending fly out to a sacrifice fly, driving in the go-ahead run.

The Dodgers finally got something going offensively in the top of the seventh on back-to-back pinch-hit singles by Chris Taylor and Franklin Gutierrez. That brought Toles to the plate and set up his full-swing heroics.

They broke the game open with five runs in the final two innings.

In the eighth, Yasiel Puig beat out a two-out infield single, stole second and went to third on a wild throw by Padres catcher Austin Hedges. Puig trotted home with a run when Taylor bounced a ground ball off of third base for a hit.

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In the ninth, singles by Seager, Turner and Yasmani Grandal (only Turner’s left the infield) produced another run and Bellinger’s second home run did the rest. It was his second multi-homer game in his first 10 big-league games.

Four scoreless innings in relief from the Dodgers’ bullpen made the lead stand up but only after Puig completed a trifecta of outstanding defensive plays by running Hedges’ drive down at the wall in right field. He also made a nice running catch in the gap in the fifth inning and uncorked a laser throw from right field to throw Yangervis Solarte out at third in the fourth inning.

More to come on this story.