Dodgers Rally Twice, Ohtani's Arm a Worry
Rushing and Hernandez power back-to-back rallies as San Diego's skid deepens and Ohtani's biceps becomes the finale's storyline.
The Dodgers erased a six-run hole Thursday and did it again Friday, rallying past the Padres 12-7 and then 4-3 in back-to-back comebacks at Dodger Stadium. Dalton Rushing drove in four runs in the first win. Teoscar Hernandez capped the second with a go-ahead grand slam off Adrian Morejon in the seventh, though Shohei Ohtani's exit with right biceps tightness after 110 pitches looms over the series finale."]
The comebacks come as San Diego's losing streak balloons, a stretch the Dodgers digest crowd had circled as a chance to push it to seven. Rushing's four-RBI night set the tone Thursday, and Hernandez turned a Jake Cronenworth error into the decisive blow Friday, jumping on Morejon with the bases loaded.
Ohtani's exit is the bigger story into the weekend. Throwing a season-high 110 pitches before his right biceps tightened up is the kind of workload spike the Dodgers can't shrug off in a division race this tight, and holding him out of Saturday's lineup as a precaution says the training staff isn't taking chances.
San Diego still climbed a half-game ahead in the NL West at one point this week despite dropping two straight, a sign of how thin the margin has been since May. Dave Roberts downplayed the Padres as a threat back in April, but this series has carried, in one paper's words, 'near-playoff-level intensity.' The finale Sunday, with Ohtani's arm the lingering question, decides who leaves Dodger Stadium with the edge.