SAN DIEGO (AP) Clayton Kershaw shut down San Diego for six innings and Chris Taylor scored from first base on Max Muncy’s single in the sixth to lead the seven-time NL West champion Los Angeles Dodgers to a 1-0 victory Thursday and a three-game sweep of the Padres.
The Dodgers have won four straight and nine of 12 heading into their final regular-season series at San Francisco. They begin pursuit of a third straight NL pennant next Thursday night at Dodger Stadium against the wild card winner.
Kenta Maeda came on with Wil Myers aboard on a leadoff single in the ninth and retired the side for his third save. He struck out Manny Machado, who was with the Dodgers for the second half of 2018 and their World Series loss to the Boston Red Sox, and Hunter Renfroe before getting Seth Mejias-Brean to fly out.
The Dodgers had five hits and the Padres only three.
The Padres, who fired manager Andy Green on Saturday, lost for the 12th time in 14 games and closed within one defeat of their fourth-straight 90-loss season. San Diego has missed the playoffs for the 13th straight season and will have a losing record for the ninth straight year.
Muncy’s hit broke up a duel between Kershaw (16-5) and Joey Lucchesi (10-10).
Lucchesi held the Dodgers hitless until rookie Will Smith singled leading off the fifth. The left-hander almost got out of the sixth but walked Chris Taylor and then gave up Muncy’s single into the gap in left-center. Taylor hustled all the way around from first and scored when Austin Hedges couldn’t handle the relay throw from shortstop Luis Urias.
The Padres did throw out Kristopher Negron trying to score on David Freese’s grounder to short in the third.
Kershaw allowed two hits, struck out seven and walked one.
Lucchesi allowed one run and three hits in six innings, struck out six and walked two.
(backslash)ATTENDANCE
Thursday’s crowd of 26,285 at Petco Park gave the Padres a home total of 2,396,399, an average of 29,585. That’s up from 2,103,420 fans (26,967 average) for 78 home games last year, when they played three games against the Dodgers in Monterrey, Mexico.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: 3B Justin Turner was out of the lineup with back tightness. Manager Dave Roberts said the injury popped up during batting practice on Wednesday. SS Corey Seager was out with a tight left hamstring. Seager came out of Wednesday night’s game and Roberts said then he expects the shortstop to be back Friday night.
UP NEXT
Dodgers: RHP Walker Buehler (13-4, 3.25) is scheduled to start Friday night’s opener of a three-game series at San Francisco.
Padres: LHP Eric Lauer (8-10, 4.53) is scheduled to start Friday night’s opener of a three-game series at Arizona, which is expected to counter with RHP Taylor Clarke (5-5, 5.40).
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