Xander Bogaerts' 3-run homer in 1st inning propels Vásquez, Padres to 5-1 win over Angels
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Xander Bogaerts hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Randy Vásquez pitched six innings of four-hit ball in the San Diego Padres' 5-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday night.
Manny Machado extended his hitting streak to 13 games with two hits and two walks as the Padres took two of three from the Angels.
Brandon Lockridge added a two-run single in the eighth for San Diego, which has won 10 of 14 to keep pace with the Dodgers in the NL West.
Taylor Ward homered for the Halos, who have lost 13 of 18.
Vásquez (3-3) produced his third straight solid start in May, striking out five with one walk.
Three Padres relievers combined on three hitless innings after the bullpen blew leads in five of its previous six games. Closer Robert Suarez rebounded from his horrific outing Monday with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Kyle Hendricks (1-5) allowed just five hits over six innings for Los Angeles, keeping the Padres scoreless after the first.
Ward hit his second homer of the series in the second, following up his dramatic grand slam in the ninth inning of the Angels' win Monday.
Lockridge matched his RBI total from his first 21 games this season with his bases-loaded single.
Key moment
Luis Arraez and Machado singled before Bogaerts capped a nine-pitch at-bat with a liner into the left field bleachers. Bogaerts has two homers in five games after hitting just one in his first 37 games.
Key stat
Matthew Lugo doubled in the third for the Angels, giving the outfielder four hits — all for extra bases — in his first 11 major league at-bats.
Up next
Both teams are off Thursday. Stephen Kolek (2-0, 0.00 ERA) returns from his first career shutout when the Padres host the Mariners on Friday. Jack Kochanowicz (2-5, 5.23 ERA) pitches for the Angels in their Freeway Series opener against the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine.
___
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
44 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Padres' Machado is on the verge of 2,000 hits. Could he be the last player to reach 3,000?
One night in April, after another line drive moved him closer to a rare milestone, Manny Machado heard a fellow member of the San Diego Padres raise a theory. Machado, the team's franchise third baseman, professes to have forgotten who said it. But the idea has stuck in his head. Maybe it was the fact that the club had just faced the Houston Astros and Jose Altuve, who reached 2,300 career hits Wednesday. Maybe it was Machado's proximity to hit No. 2,000. Maybe, more than anything, it was the audacity of it all. If Machado were to eventually reach 3,000 hits, could he be the last to ever do it? 'It does sound crazy,' Machado said, 'but at the same time, you kind of see how the game is going right now.' Machado, who turns 33 next month, finds himself on the doorstep of an increasingly exclusive club. There are four active players -- Freddie Freeman, Altuve, Andrew McCutchen and Paul Goldschmidt -- with at least 2,000 hits. Machado, with only 19 more hits, will make it five. Yet as recently as two decades ago, there were 27 such players. This downward trend might only be accelerating. Pitchers are pairing unparalleled velocity with a greater understanding of how to manipulate spin and ball flight. The contact hitter is not extinct, but home runs and uppercut swings still drive team success and nine-figure contracts. While extreme shifts are now outlawed, defenses continue to pursue optimal positioning. 'It's hard to hit the ball,' said Luis Arraez, the Padres' first baseman and a three-time batting champion. In 2025, the leaguewide batting average remains under .250 for a sixth consecutive year. If the season were to end today, the average on balls in play would mark a 33-year low. Arraez, 28, who has 915 career hits, secured the National League batting title last year with a mere .314 average. As players in their late 30s, McCutchen and Goldschmidt are long shots to even come close to 3,000 hits. Altuve was once considered a leading candidate, but he is showing signs of decline. Freeman is hitting as well as ever, but, like Altuve, is racing against time. Machado, meanwhile, has a chance to achieve something none of those decorated veterans did: become the 55th player to record 2,000 hits before age 33. He also has a $350 million contract that runs through 2033 and came with the understanding that he would provide the bulk of his production on the front end. So far, Machado, a six-time All-Star, has delivered few indications of offensive slippage. He spent much of the last three years playing through tennis elbow and then the lingering effects of reparative surgery. He still completed 2024 as the only active big leaguer to have hit at least 28 home runs in nine consecutive full seasons. Now, he is batting .320 with a seemingly healthy elbow and some of the best underlying numbers of his career. In a recent 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants, he lined an opposite-field single and pulled a two-run drive to become the 33rd player with 350 home runs by age 32. He was 3 for 5 with five runs batted in an 11-1 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday. 'It feels good to just be somewhat normal and be able to get some good swings out and not really be on the training room table every single day,' Machado said. Mike Shildt, the Padres' second-year manager, said he was seeing more 'consistency and clarity' from Machado. 'I just see a guy that's really comfortable where he's at, trusting the guys around him and not making the situation bigger than it is,' Shildt said. 'Just putting a good stroke on it, which is one of the best right-handed swings I've seen.' The team's hitting coach, Victor Rodriguez, added: 'He's healthy. He's not searching. He's not trying to feel how he can be comfortable. He's comfortable. And you see Manny sometimes get out of it, but the next day he's really focusing on getting back to the big part of the field and being himself.' Machado has been that guy from the beginning. On Aug. 9, 2012, when he was 20, he skipped over Triple-A and landed in a playoff chase with the Baltimore Orioles. In his second at-bat, he tripled into the right-center gap for his first career hit. In time, Machado turned consistent doubles power into 30-homer seasons. He won a Platinum Glove in 2013, given to the best overall defensive player in each league, and settled in as one of the finest defenders of his generation. After two knee operations cost him time early in his career, he demonstrated what would become another defining quality. Since 2015, Machado has started more major league games than anyone else. His only trip to the injured list over the last decade came in 2023, when a fractured hand forced him to miss two weeks. His durability reminds Los Angeles Angels Manager Ron Washington of Adrián Beltré, the third-base contemporary Machado most admired until Beltré retired in 2018. 'Injuries never stopped Adrián Beltré from playing,' said Washington, who managed Beltré for four seasons with the Texas Rangers. 'Adrián Beltré made other people want to be everyday players. There's a lot of guys that couldn't play every day, but because they were around Adrián Beltré, they'd think they could play every day. 'That's the kind of player that Manny Machado is. He makes everybody else want to come on the field and play.' As the games have piled up, so have the hits. Machado reached 1,500 hits in 2022, becoming the sixth third baseman to cross that threshold by age 29 -- and the first since Beltré in 2008. He has batted at least .275 in every season since his rookie campaign, and his gap-to-gap approach holds up in offense-suppressing venues. Given their continuing performances, Machado and Freeman, the Dodgers' metronome of a first baseman, appear to be the safest current picks to eclipse 3,000 hits. Both have supplied all-fields production in eerily similar fashion. Since the Statcast era began in 2015, Machado's batted-ball profile breaks down as follows: 37% to the pull side, 37% up the middle and 25% to the opposite field. The same goes for Freeman, who at 35 is leading the NL in batting average. 'Manny and Freddie, they came from a different era with a different philosophy and a different skill set on how to approach hitting, and they've been able to survive,' Shildt said. 'And yeah, their talent's extraordinary, but it's not so extraordinary that other people can't follow it. But the industry, including the amateur level, is tripled up where you're just devaluing the hit. It's not valued as highly.' A little more than three years have passed since Miguel Cabrera, an all-fields slugger Machado studied closely, became the 33rd and most recent player to enter the 3,000-hit club. Freeman and Altuve, with perhaps a handful more seasons, could approach elite territory around their 40th birthdays. Even Machado is far from a guarantee. Of the 10 players this century to reach 2,000 hits by age 32, five -- Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Beltré, Albert Pujols and Cabrera -- went on to attain 3,000. Victor Rodriguez, who worked as Cleveland's assistant hitting coach before the Padres hired him, suggested that 2,500 hits would be enough to earn Guardians third baseman José Ramírez entry into the Hall of Fame. (Ramírez, 32, has 1,581.) Washington, whose career in professional baseball began in 1970, said he could envision a world in which Machado winds up being the final player to amass 3,000 hits. 'It's not the pitching, it's the players,' Washington said, adding, 'You need pure hitters to reach that.' Future applicants will also need the kind of longevity Machado is tracking toward. Twenty-eight of the 33 members of the 3,000-hit club played in at least 20 big league seasons. Only one, Ichiro Suzuki, arrived in the majors after his 23rd birthday. Twenty-six made their debuts before turning 22. Sitting at his locker on a recent afternoon, Machado pointed out that the number of players who have ever reached the major leagues -- now almost 23,500 -- would not quite fill half of Petco Park. He marveled at that fact, as well as his proximity to 297 players who have crossed a lofty threshold. 'It's going to be pretty cool, man,' Machado said. 'Obviously, it always takes you back to that first hit. You kind of reflect on how that was your childhood dream, to get a hit in the big leagues. And now you're pushing 2,000, which is crazy.' He also considered a certain theory. Maybe one day the likes of Padres center fielder Jackson Merrill and Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. will have the opportunity to disprove it. Maybe future legislation will help swing the game back in favor of hitters. Maybe, if Machado does not do it, someone else will. Actually, he sounded certain of it. 'I'm pretty sure it will continue,' Machado said. 'We're going to be seeing a lot of great players come through the minor leagues and be really good baseball players and break a lot of records.' Still, as Machado marches toward his 2,000th hit and an even greater milestone, his career already puts him in rare territory. He could end up among the last -- if not the very last -- of his kind. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
MLB games today: Schedule, times, how to watch for June 13
MLB games today: Schedule, times, how to watch for June 13 Show Caption Hide Caption With the Dodgers favored to repeat, is the MLB becoming too top-heavy? Bob Nightengale and Gabe Lacques discuss whether or not the MLB is lacking parity and could be facing a potential problem in the future. Sports Seriously Here is the full Major League Baseball schedule for June 13 and how to watch all the games. Or see our sortable MLB schedule to filter by team or division. MLB schedule today All times Eastern and accurate as of Friday, June 13, 2025, at 4:41 a.m. Watch MLB games all season long with Fubo (free trial). MLB scores, results MLB scores for June 13 games are available on Here's how to access today's results: See scores, results for all the games listed above. See MLB Scores, results from June 12
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dodgers take on the Giants in first of 3-game series
San Francisco Giants (40-29, second in the NL West) vs. Los Angeles Dodgers (41-28, first in the NL West) Los Angeles; Friday, 10:10 p.m. EDT PITCHING PROBABLES: Giants: Logan Webb (5-5, 2.58 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 101 strikeouts); Dodgers: Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-4, 2.20 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 86 strikeouts) Advertisement BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Dodgers -172, Giants +144; over/under is 7 1/2 runs BOTTOM LINE: The Los Angeles Dodgers host the San Francisco Giants to start a three-game series. Los Angeles has a 23-11 record in home games and a 41-28 record overall. The Dodgers have the top team batting average in MLB play at .265. San Francisco is 40-29 overall and 18-18 on the road. The Giants are 22-3 in games when they scored at least five runs. The teams meet Friday for the first time this season. TOP PERFORMERS: Shohei Ohtani leads the Dodgers with 23 home runs while slugging .625. Andy Pages is 14 for 42 with four doubles, two home runs and four RBIs over the past 10 games. Advertisement LAST 10 GAMES: Dodgers: 5-5, .247 batting average, 4.20 ERA, outscored by 12 runs Giants: 7-3, .226 batting average, 3.32 ERA, outscored opponents by six runs INJURIES: Dodgers: Tony Gonsolin: 15-Day IL (elbow), Luis Garcia: 15-Day IL (adductor), Tyler Glasnow: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Evan Phillips: 60-Day IL (forearm), Blake Snell: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Roki Sasaki: 15-Day IL (shoulder), Blake Treinen: 60-Day IL (forearm), Edgardo Henriquez: 60-Day IL (foot), Kyle Hurt: 60-Day IL (elbow), Emmet Sheehan: 60-Day IL (elbow), Michael Grove: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Brusdar Graterol: 60-Day IL (shoulder), River Ryan: 60-Day IL (elbow), Gavin Stone: 60-Day IL (shoulder) Giants: Patrick Bailey: 10-Day IL (neck), Matt Chapman: 10-Day IL (hand), Jordan Hicks: 15-Day IL (toe), Justin Verlander: 15-Day IL (pectoral), Tom Murphy: 60-Day IL (back) ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
