LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts had three hits and two RBIs, rookie Gavin Stone retired his first 15 batters and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres 5-2 on Saturday night in a testy game delayed more than two hours by rain.
The benches and bullpens cleared in the fifth inning when Dodgers catcher Will Smith and Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar exchanged heated words at home plate. But the altercation didn’t go beyond that.
“He took offense to a cutter inside. He was staring at Stoney, and I felt like I needed to say something. I thought the whole thing was kind of silly, stupid, whatever you want to call it,” Smith said. “I don’t know why he thought we were trying to hit him there. It was kind of weird.”
Asked if he thought Stone was trying to hit him because he squared to bunt, Profar said: “For a moment, I thought so. But he was throwing a perfect game, so he wouldn’t do that.”
Stone (1-1) allowed two runs in 6 2/3 innings for his second major league win. The right-hander was perfect until issuing a leadoff walk in the sixth to Tyler Wade, who was quickly erased on a double play.
Kyle Higashioka then singled for San Diego’s first hit. Jackson Merrill also singled and the Padres tied it 1-all on a double by Fernando Tatis Jr. Stone got Jake Cronenworth on a line drive to center field to end the inning, and the Dodgers went ahead to stay with three runs in the bottom half.
“I felt like me and Willy were on the same page all night,” Stone said. “Just attacking and seeing where that goes.”
Gavin Lux singled home the tiebreaking run off Tom Cosgrove (0-1), and Betts followed with an RBI single of his own. Shohei Ohtani made it 4-1 with a sacrifice fly against Adrian Morejon.
Wade’s run-scoring single chased Stone in the seventh, but Daniel Hudson struck out all three batters in the eighth and Evan Phillips pitched a scoreless ninth for his fifth save.
Phillips permitted two hits but got Wade on a grounder for the final out with runners at second and third.
Stone gave up five hits in the longest of his seven career starts. The right-hander struck out four and walked one on 88 pitches. He yielded eight runs and 13 hits over eight innings in his previous two outings this year.
“We needed the length, we needed to put up zeros, and he was fantastic all night,” manager Dave Roberts said. “This is what can happen when you pitch with conviction. He was on the attack from pitch one, flooding the zone and making those guys uncomfortable and using his entire pitch mix.”
Padres starter Matt Waldron allowed one run and three hits in five innings. He struck out four and walked four.
The start was pushed back 2 hours, 15 minutes. Wet weather is usually uncommon during baseball season in Los Angeles, but it was the second rain delay already this year at Dodger Stadium.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: Starting pitcher Bobby Miller (right shoulder inflammation) and reliever Connor Brogdon (right plantar fasciitis) were placed on the 15-day injured list. Los Angeles recalled RHP J.P. Feyereisen and LHP Nick Ramirez from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Miller hasn’t been recovering well from his last couple of starts, Roberts said, but he didn’t think it was anything structural and said he wasn’t sure if Miller had an MRI. … RHP Walker Buehler (right index finger) is expected to make his next rehab start Thursday. He exited his last one after getting hit by a comebacker.
UP NEXT
San Diego RHP Yu Darvish (0-1, 3.86 ERA) faces Los Angeles LHP James Paxton (2-0, 1.64) on Sunday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
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