As the San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 on Saturday night, Cortes took a perfect game into the sixth inning and combined with three relievers on a two-hitter to recover the NL West lead.
The Padres (74-56) have jumped ahead of the Dodgers (73-57) in the final series of the regular season by giving up just five hits and two runs in back-to-back victories, led by Ram n Laureano’s two-run single in the fourth and Xander Bogaerts’ two-run double in the eighth.
Suggested Videos
San Diego has won five straight games since was swept at Chavez Ravine last weekend.
For the Dodgers, who have dropped four of six games, Alex Freeland blasted his second home run of the season. For just the second time since April 27, Los Angeles is in second place.
The veteran left-hander Cortes (2-2) completely shut down the Dodgers this time around, matching Yu Darvish’s six innings of one-hit ball on Friday for San Diego. Cortes memorably let up Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slamwhile pitching for the Yankees in last year’s World Series.
Prior to Miguel Rojas’ single in the sixth inning, Cortes retired the Dodgers’ first 16 batters in his fourth start since joining the Padres at the July 31 trade deadline.
In the eighth inning, Freeland hit his second consecutive home run off Jeremiah Estrada, while Bogaerts only managed the Padres’ third hit of the evening.
Adrian Morejon recorded his third save with four outs.
On his 32nd birthday, Tyler Glasnow (1-2) pitched four innings and gave up two runs, three hits, and four walks.
San Diego rallied in the fourth despite Glasnow’s strong start. Jake Cronenworth’s sacrifice fly came after a bases-loaded single by Laureano, another trade-deadline acquisition.
Crucial moment
After Rojas’ hit, Cortes received a mound visit, but he calmly put Shohei Ohtani and Buddy Kennedy on flyouts.
Important statistic
Despite pitching reasonably well, Glasnow has lost all 12 of his starts since March.
Next up
On Sunday, the Padres’ Nick Pivetta (13-4, 2.81) and LA’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto (10-8, 2.90 ERA) square off in the series finale.
___
https://apnews.com/MLB is the AP MLB page.
