James Paxton fired six shutout innings and Teoscar Hernandez belted a grand slam as the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers blanked the San Diego Padres 5-0 on Saturday night.
Paxton (5-0) gave up four hits, walked none and struck out four in improving to 3-1 in six career starts against San Diego. It was a 180-degree turn in terms of control from his previous outing against the Padres on April 14, when he issued a career-high eight walks in five-plus innings.
Matt Waldron (1-5) pitched well but still took the loss, permitting two hits and two runs over 5 1/3 innings with a pair of walks and six strikeouts. Freddie Freeman was the only Los Angeles player to solve Waldron, homering down the right field line in the first and doubling to lead off the fourth.
Freeman's homer turned out to be the only run the Dodgers needed but the game was still tense until Hernandez delivered his big swing in the sixth. Waldron and reliever Adrian Morejon set up the slam with control troubles.
Waldron departed after issuing a one-out walk to Shohei Ohtani. Morejon got Freeman to fly out but then walked Will Smith and Max Muncy, tossing a wild pitch to boot. Enyel De Los Santos came on for Hernandez, got ahead of him 1-2 and then hung a slider.
Hernandez whacked it an estimated 390 feet into the left field seats for his 11th homer, tying Ohtani for the team high as the Los Angeles fans in a Petco Park record crowd of 46,701 roared their approval.
San Diego's best chance to reach Paxton occurred in the bottom of the fifth inning. Donovan Solano laced a leadoff double into the left field corner. However, Paxton got Ha-Seong Kim to fly out to right, induced a first-pitch popup from Jose Azocar and fanned Kyle Higashioka to leave Solano at second.
Freeman was the only Dodger with two hits, while Fernando Tatis Jr. collected two of the Padres' six hits.
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