SAN DIEGO (AP) - The Los Angeles Dodgers are winless since clinching their fourth straight NL West title, thanks in large part to San Diego Padres rookie Hunter Renfroe.
Renfroe hit the first home run in Petco Park history to land on the roof of the brick warehouse in the left field corner and drove in four runs to lead the Padres to a 6-5 victory over the Dodgers on Wednesday night.
With one out in the third, Renfroe drove a two-run homer off Jose De Leon onto the top of the Western Metal Supply Co. building, a remnant from the skid row neighborhood that made way for Petco Park, which opened in 2004. It went an estimated 435 feet.
“The guy is pretty powerful,” De Leon said. “You have to tip your hat to him. The pitch was in where we wanted and he just got the head out and it was a monster shot. There is nothing you can do about that.”
Renfroe, the MVP of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League, has four homers and 12 RBIs since he was called up from El Paso on Sept. 21. He drove in all seven runs in Tuesday night’s 7-1 win against Los Angeles, on his first grand slam and a three-run homer.
Los Angeles remains two games behind the Washington Nationals in the race for home-field advantage for their division series matchup, with four to play. The Nationals lost 3-0 to Arizona.
“I saw that,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve to win baseball games ourselves. We got a lead and then gave it back and didn’t play as clean as baseball we are accustomed.”
The Dodgers lost despite hitting three home runs off rookie Luis Perdomo (9-10), who had lost three of four starts coming in. Brandon Maurer pitched the ninth for his 13th save.
Chase Utley hit a leadoff homer to left and Adrian Gonzalez add a solo shot deep into the seats in right with two outs in the first.
The Padres took a 3-2 lead off starter De Leon after loading the bases with one out in the first. Renfroe hit a two-run single and rookie Ryan Schimpf followed with an RBI double.
Gonzalez hit an RBI double to tie it in the third before Renfroe gave the Padres a 5-3 lead with his homer.
The Dodgers tied it on Joc Pederson’s two-run homer to right in the fourth.
San Diego regained the lead in the bottom of the inning when rookie Manuel Margot doubled off Ross Stripling (5-9) and scored on Wil Myers’ groundout.
Perdomo allowed five runs and seven hits in five innings, struck out two and walked one.
De Leon allowed five runs, three earned, and four hits in 2 1/3 innings. He struck out one and walked three.
“Jose just wasn’t sharp tonight,” Roberts said. “His fastball had life but he didn’t have command of it and the secondaries weren’t there. But he’s been good for us in certain spots. Tonight he wasn’t sharp.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: The team said LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu underwent an arthroscopic cleanup of his left elbow, performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Los Angeles. He is expected to be ready for the 2017 season.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: LHP Julio Urias (5-2, 3.53) is back in the rotation, scheduled to make his first start since Sept. 13.
Padres: LHP Christian Friedrich (5-11, 4.66) is scheduled to start the series finale.
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