LOS ANGELES (AP) - In the early going, Rich Hill was perfect. Only he didn’t feel that way.
He didn’t like the way the ball was coming out of his hand, even though he wasn’t letting anyone on base.
“Around the third inning, the feel started coming around,” Hill said. “The big thing was getting ahead and throwing strikes.”
Hill allowed two hits over six shutout innings, Chris Taylor, Justin Turner and Max Muncy homered, and the Los Angeles Dodgers routed the San Diego Padres 11-1 on Friday night to snap a three-game skid.
Hill (6-4) retired his first 12 batters, seven of them on strikeouts, before Hunter Renfroe doubled leading off the fifth.
“There were a few pitches I left out there,” Hill said. “Everything needs to be tightened up as we move to September.”
Hill added another strikeout and had one walk on 90 pitches in his first win since Aug. 7 at Oakland. The only other hit the veteran left-hander gave up was a triple to Freddy Galvis in the sixth.
“It’s discouraging when you go into a game with a game plan and we swing at fast balls up and out of the zone,” Padres manager Andy Green said. “You’re just not going to get Rich Hill that way. It’s going to take discipline.”
The last-place Padres proved the antidote that the slumping Dodgers needed after scoring just six runs while getting swept in three games by St. Louis. Los Angeles had lost nine of its last 12 and 10 of 14, but the victory brought them back to .500 at home (33-33).
“Just kind of getting that monkey off our back was big for us and hopefully we can settle down and relax,” Turner said. “Offense is contagious. When it goes good early, it goes really good. When there’s opportunities lost early in the game it builds up anxiety.”
The Dodgers pounded out 13 hits and scored in each of the first five innings.
Taylor homered on his first pitch from Clayton Richard (7-11) in the third. Turner added a two-run shot on Richard’s first pitch to him in the fourth, extending the lead to 7-0.
Richard gave up seven runs - six earned - and nine hits in 3 2/3 innings. He struck out three and walked two.
“It’s extremely disappointing to put your team in the hole like that. I have no excuse,” Richard said. “It stinks to have an outing like that.”
Pinch-hitter Muncy slugged his team-high 29th homer, a two-run shot that made it 11-0, in the seventh. The Dodgers have an NL West-leading 179 homers this season.
The Dodgers scored four runs in the second on Cody Bellinger’s RBI single, Brian Dozier’s RBI double down the third-base line and Turner’s RBI single.
Bellinger’s RBI double and Hill’s RBI single extended the lead to 9-0 in the fifth.
The Dodgers’ bullpen completed the four-hitter. Yimi Garcia gave up two hits and allowed the Padres’ lone run on Galvis’ RBI double in the eighth.
The Padres have lost nine of 11 and fell to 4-10 against their NL West rivals this season.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: 3B Wil Myers returned to the lineup, going 0 for 4. He had just one at-bat in the last two games after he was hit in the face by a groundball in batting practice Wednesday. “I felt good,” he said. “No problems with anything.”
Dodgers: RHP Daniel Hudson (right forearm tightness) went on the disabled list. … RHP Ross Stripling had his scheduled throwing session pushed back to Saturday, when he will face hitters for one or two innings. … RHP Garcia was reinstated from the DL after missing 43 games with right forearm inflammation.
AT HOME ON THE ROAD
Galvis has hit safely in his last nine games at Dodger Stadium dating to Aug. 9, 2016. He’s batted .400 with six runs, three doubles, a triple, three homers and 10 RBIs.
BIRTHDAY BOY
Dodgers center fielder Enrique Hernandez celebrated his 27th birthday by going 1 for 4 with two runs, a walk and two strikeouts.
UP NEXT
RHP Brett Kennedy (0-2, 8.36 ERA) makes his fourth career start for San Diego and his second against a divisional foe. LHP Clayton Kershaw (6-5, 2.40) makes his 34th career start against the Padres. He is 18-6 with a 1.89 ERA against them, while holding opposing batters to a .186 average while averaging 9.52 strikeouts per nine innings.
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