Shohei Ohtani, 4 Dodgers relievers blank Padres in series finale
The Dodgers had the best player in the world pitching against the major leagues' lightest-hitting offense.
The Padres did not have the best version of Randy Vásquez pitching against what is by some measures the major leagues' top offense.
So a series that began with a pair of one-run games and a hint of October ended with a game that wasn't all that competitive - a 4-0 Dodgers victory on Wednesday night at Petco Park.
The Dodgers left San Diego having taken two of three games. They’ve extended their lead over the Padres to 1½ games in the National League West standings.
“I thought tonight was a good, good ball game,” Padres manager Craig Stammen said. “You take out all the double plays, and I think we would have had a chance. To me, it was closer than what the score indicated. … A hit here and there, and that game is a lot different. So, I think it was three close games. They’re going to battle us, we’re going to battle them. It’s going to be a lot of fun for the rest of the season.”
The Padres, who have had more quality starts thrown against them than any other team, did become the first lineup to get Ohtani out of a game before he completed six innings. But they did not score against him or the four relievers that followed him.
While they made Ohtani work, they failed to finish the one time they threatened.
Ohtani's final inning, the fifth, built to one of the two big moments for the Padres’ offense. But it ended on a result that has headlined their offensive ineffectiveness as much as anything - a hard groundball by Fernando Tatis Jr.
“The great ones always find a way,” Xander Bogaerts said. “He found a way today, and we didn’t.”
All the Dodgers really needed to win the rubber match in the series was Ohtani's home run on the first pitch of the game, a blast that was more costly than just the lead it gave the Dodgers. Center fielder Jackson Merrill hurt his back when he hit the wall leaping to try to rob the home run, and he departed before the fifth inning began.
Stammen said the team will know more about his status after imaging is done.
Merrill repeatedly twisted and stretch his torso in the field and he grimaced after some swings during lone at-bat. Stammen and head athletic trainer Mark Rogow checked on him after that strikeout ended the second inning but did not remove him from the game then.
“He’s never gonna say I need to come out of the game,” Stammen said. “I have to personally take him out of the game, and so we tried to let him gut it out a little bit, and just seeing him moving around the outfield didn’t look right to me.”
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Merrill’s replacement, Bryce Johnson, began the bottom of the fifth inning with a flared single to center. Nick Castellanos followed with a single that moved Johnson to third before Ramón Laureano grounded a ball back to Ohtani that the pitcher threw to second to force out Castellanos. Freddy Fermin then drew a walk to load the bases, bringing up Tatis with one out.
With the Padres' portion of the crowd having been stirred for the first time, Tatis hit the first pitch he saw on the ground to shortstop Mookie Betts, who began an inning-ending double play.
That came on the 88th pitch by Ohtani, who allowed three hits and struck out four while lowering his ERA to 0.73 - a half-point better than any other MLB pitcher who has thrown even 20 innings this season.
The smallest of accomplishments for the Padres was that Ohtani had in all seven of his previous starts this season gone at least six innings while allowing two or fewer runs.
He did run his scoreless streak to 16 innings, and the Dodgers’ bullpen ran its scoreless streak to 29 innings as it closed out the series victory.
They did so despite the Padres again getting runners at the corners with one out against Kyle Hurt in the eighth inning.
But after Laureano's line drive single and a dribbled single by Tatis, Miguel Andujar grounded into a double play.
“We definitely had some opportunities to break it open, and a couple double plays nipped that in the bud,” Stammen said. “We’ve got to come up with a hit in that situation - or a good at-bat - and we just weren’t able to tonight.”
The five hits the Padres got Wednesday dropped their MLB-worst batting average to .221. The five runs the Padres scored in the series were their fewest in a series since May 2025.
The Dodgers, who entered the game with the major league's highest OPS, began each of the first three innings with extra-base hits and scored in two of those.
Vásquez, whose 4⅓ innings comprised his second-shortest outing in 10 starts, retired the Dodgers in order just once and departed after walking two batters and getting an out in the fifth inning.
One of the runners he left scored on a single allowed by Wandy Peralta, and Teoscar Hernandez homered against Ron Marinaccio in the ninth inning.
“They were good,” Bogaerts said of the three games in the series. “Today, we didn’t score any. But they were good. … It would have been nice to win the series, but we didn’t.”
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This story was originally published May 20, 2026 at 8:45 PM.