Dodgers go wild in third inning, cruise to 6-2 win over Padres

Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said his team wouldn’t ease up in its final series of the regular season. On Friday night, that proved true.

Six Dodgers contributed at least one hit, and starting pitcher Alex Wood was mostly mistake-free en route to a 6-2 victory over the San Diego Padres.

The bottom of the third inning is when the Dodgers inflicted most of their damage, beginning with singles by outfielder Carl Crawford and second baseman Howie Kendrick. Next up was first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who delivered a single that scored Crawford and advanced Kendrick to third.

Justin Turner followed with a routine grounder to Padres second baseman Cory Spangenberg, who made a throwing error when he attempted to flip the ball to second base that allowed Kendrick to score. After an Andre Ethier run-scoring groundout, the offensive burst continued with an RBI single by Corey Seager. Three pitches later, catcher A.J. Ellis smacked a ball to deep center for another RBI single to make it 5-0, but he was tagged out trying to advance to second base.

The Dodgers scored again in the fifth inning when Turner singled home Kendrick, who led off with a double. That sent off Padres pitcher Casey Kelley, who gave up eight hits and six runs (three earned) over 81 pitches.

The Padres showed some life in the top of the seventh, putting up two runs after shortstop Jedd Gyorko and outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. got on base with a single and double, respectively. Mattingly elected to keep Wood in through the remainder of the inning before replacing him in the eighth. The Padres scored on a groundout by Alexi Amarista and another on a sacrifice fly by Cody Decker.

Despite a shaky conclusion, Wood had a solid outing, giving up five hits and one walk while striking out four batters over 88 pitches.

In relief of Wood, Joel Peralta and Pedro Baez combined to give up one hit and struck out two.

With the victory and a postponement of Friday’s Mets-Nationals game, the Dodgers (90-70) technically move half a game ahead of their first-round playoff opponents, giving them home-field advantage. That might be temporary, however: The Mets own the tiebreaker in their season series, meaning if the teams end up with identical records by the end of the season, the National League division series will open in New York.