Dodgers manage to walk out with a win against Padres

The majority of the fans at Petco Park on Saturday night, the swaths sporting Dodgers blue who infiltrated enemy territory and drowned out the hosts, rose to their feet with the score tied in the ninth inning. The Dodgers had Kirby Yates, the San Diego Padres’ accomplished closer, on the ropes for the second time in 24 hours. Alex Verdugo, the Dodgers’ undaunted rookie, stood at the plate with the bases loaded and two outs.

Verdugo knew Yates thrives off his splitter and hitters’ misplaced aggressiveness, with inducing bad swings at pitches that bottom out and dart below the strike zone. He took a couple of deep breaths and didn’t deviate from his approach. He was hunting for a pitch up in the zone. Yates didn’t offer any. The decibel level spiked when Verdugo worked a 2-and-0 count before taking a hearty hack at a fastball. It crescendoed two pitches later, after Verdugo watched a pitch sail up and away for a walk to push home the go-ahead run in the Dodgers’ 7-6 win after 4 hours 12 minutes, marking the longest nine-inning game in Petco Park history.

“We feed through it with the whole lineup,” Verdugo said. “If one guy doesn’t do it, the next guy will.”

For the second consecutive night, Yates entered with the score tied in the ninth inning and left with the Dodgers leading. Yates has given up three runs this season. None have been in save situations. Two weeks after the Dodgers toppled Josh Hader, widely regarded as baseball’s best reliever, twice in a series, they’ve done the same to one of his top-flight peers.

“It just speaks to the maturity of us,” infielder Max Muncy said, “that we don’t let the situation get out of hand.”

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On Friday, the Dodgers beat Yates with a double and a single. On Saturday, they repeated the feat by putting one ball in play, Justin Turner’s single to lead off the frame. Yates recorded two consecutive strikeouts before he walked Muncy, whose single Friday off him gave the Dodgers their go-ahead run. Yates then hit Martin with a pitch to set the stage for Verdugo’s display of restraint.

“It’s impressive,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “And as we see more of him each day, we learn more. And obviously he’s excitable, he’s talented, but he does have that ability to temper it a bit, those emotions, and stay in the strike zone.”

Late-inning exploits would not have been deemed necessary a few innings earlier, when the Dodgers erased an early lead for the second straight day. Down two runs, the Dodgers were threatening to mount another comeback when starter Joey Lucchesi was removed after his 100th pitch. Two runners were on base with no outs and Muncy, a left-handed hitter, was up next. Another left-hander, Brad Wieck, was summoned to attempt to clean up the mess.

The handedness did not affect Muncy. He coolly took the first three pitches to run the count to 3-0. He then let a fastball zip by him over the heart of the plate for a strike. The next pitch was a slider, floating down the middle like it was spinning some cement. Muncy pounced on it as if he knew it was coming and uncorked a ferocious hack. He unhurriedly stepped out of the batter’s box as he watched it land a few rows behind the right-field wall for his sixth home run.

“I was just trying to get something up in the zone,” Muncy said, “and he hung it up for me.”

The three-run blast gave the Dodgers their first lead. The margin evaporated in the bottom of the frame because Joe Kelly floundered against the impotent bottom half of the Padres lineup. The right-hander began his outing by surrendering a leadoff single to Eric Hosmer. Ty France then lined an RBI double into the left-field corner. Kelly faced three more batters. Two reached base. He recorded one out with 27 pitches. He exited with the bases loaded, leaving Yimi Garcia to escape the jam.

Kelly has appeared in 13 games this season. He’s recorded clean outings just twice, and one ended after one batter because he took a comebacker off the wrist. He owns a 10.13 earned-run average.

Garcia slipped in his tightrope attempt, hitting Ian Kinsler with a pitch and walking Manny Machado to allow two runners to score. The bleeding, and a long sixth inning, stopped there, but the score was tied. It could’ve been worse for Los Angeles — Kinsler had a line drive land foul by inches down the left-field line.

After hitting a two-run shot off Clayton Kershaw in the first inning Friday, Machado clubbed a solo blast against Rich Hill in the first inning Saturday. He savored both homers off his former teammates with extended admiration and a slow trot.

Unlike Friday, the Dodgers responded rapidly, evening the score in the second inning with a quick two-out rally. Verdugo extended the inning with a single to center field before advancing to second base on a wild pitch. He then scored when Chris Taylor lashed a single just beyond second baseman Kinsler’s reach.

Hill retired the side in order in the second inning but blundered in the third. He ignited the trouble by issuing a leadoff walk to Lucchesi. Kinsler followed with a groundball to third base that the Dodgers couldn’t turn into a double play. The failure cost them. Moments later, Hill’s pickoff attempt at first base sailed past David Freese and far enough for Kinsler to scamper from first to third base. He scored on Franmil Reyes’s ensuing sacrifice fly.

That brought up Machado with two outs and the bases empty again. And again Machado launched a solo home run, pouncing on a first-pitch fastball for his eighth homer this season and first multi-home-game since he clubbed two for the Dodgers against the Padres last September.

Machado’s presence ultimately ended Hill’s night early, after Hill surrendered consecutive singles to begin the bottom of the fifth inning. Machado was up next. Roberts wasn’t going to let him face Hill, who said he struggled with his rhythm, a third time. So he replaced the left-hander after 85 pitches with Pedro Baez.

“I think tempo and rhythm were terrible,” Hill said. “Timing was awful tonight. There’s not really a lot of good takeaways from tonight, personally.

The button was the right one. Baez got Machado to ground into a 5-4-3 double play on his second pitch, a 95-mph fastball in on the hands, and induced a groundout from Hunter Renfroe to terminate the threat. The result kept the Dodgers within two.

jorge.castillo@latimes.com

Twitter: @jorgecastillo