With win in SD, LA still in home-field race

SAN DIEGO — Evidently, Joc Pederson and the Dodgers aren’t too keen on the idea of a cross-country flight early next week.

With a pair of timely doubles and three RBIs, Pederson lifted the Dodgers to a 9-4 victory over the Padres in Thursday’s Petco Park finale. With the win, Los Angeles stayed alive in the race for home-field advantage in its upcoming National League Division Series against Washington.

“I think the narrative has been we don’t hit left-handed pitching,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “But I just got wind that we got a winning record vs. left-handed pitching now.”

Padres starter Christian Friedrich cruised through four scoreless frames, before Pederson put the Dodgers on the board with an RBI double in the fifth. An inning later, Friedrich loaded the bases for Pederson, and the Padres called on Jose Torres. After a wild pitch plated the go-ahead run, Pederson delivered the game’s crushing blow, a two-run double off the center-field wall.

Justin Turner, Yasiel Puig, Carlos Ruiz and Rob Segedin also had multiple hits for the Dodgers, who — despite owning the tiebreaker — trail Washington by two games in the race for home-field advantage. The Nationals beat the D-backs, 5-3, on Thursday.

“It was good to see [Justin Turner] swing the bat well, and [Yasiel Puig] break out,” Roberts said. “There were some good things. So guys had some good at-bats.”

The Dodgers have been careful with Julio Urias’ workload as the season winds to a close, and did so again Thursday, pulling the 20-year-old after three shutout innings and 58 pitches. Urias surrendered just one hit and struck out five while walking a pair.

• Urias likely to pitch in NLDS in some capacity

Friedrich, meanwhile, was given a longer leash, as he wrapped up a roller-coaster 2016 campaign. The …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com