Dodgers fall, 6-3, as Padres get to a struggling Dan Haren

It was a night of contradiction for Dan Haren. He allowed just three hits through four innings, but one of those was a home run. The Padres hit the ball hard off Haren all night, but he still managed five strikeouts.

And the inning that knocked Haren out of the game, the fifth, wasn’t all that egregious. Padres leadoff man Seth Smith reached on a single, then Chase Headley hit a ball to deep center field. Scott Van Slyke got there, but the ball bounced out of his glove as he smacked against the outfield wall. Headley strolled into second and was brought in by a Carlos Quentin double,

Just like that, Haren was out of the game, having given up four runs and failing to get out of the fifth inning.

The way the Dodgers’ offense was sputtering along in the early innings, those four runs were enough to seal a 6-3 San Diego victory.

Padres starter Jesse Hahn gave up just three hits and one run in six innings, striking out six. The Dodgers left nine men on base. Third baseman Juan Uribe went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Center fielder Matt Kemp got so frustrated after a fifth-inning strikeout that he snapped the bat over his knee and slammed the splinters onto the grass.

The Dodgers’ didn’t make a serious offensive push until the later innings. They scored two runs in the seventh, but the rally was thwarted when Yasiel Puig was thrown out trying to advance from second to third on a sacrifice fly.

In the eighth the Dodgers had runners on second and third with no outs. The next two batters struck out, though, and a Carl Crawford groundout with the bases loaded ended the scoreless inning.

Meanwhile, the Padres’ normally tepid offense came to life against Haren and the Dodgers’ bullpen. San Diego entered Friday’s game averaging under three runs per game, and seven of the nine batters in the starting lineup were hitting below .230.

On Friday, the Padres looked like a different team at the plate. Their six runs off nine hits were more than enough to put away the Dodgers, a team of inconsistency in an evening of contradiction.

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