Dropping the beatdown on rival

Dodgers show they're deeper, better and more focused than the stumbling Padres

- BILL PLASCHKE

MOOKIE BETTS rounds first base on his eighth-inning, game-winning drive into the left-field pavilion.

Slammed Diego.

Those pesky rivals from down south staggered away from their weekend stay at Dodger Stadium Sunday with spirits bruised, egos bloodied and Manny Machado flattened.

Canned Diego.

Arriving here shortly after stealing first place, little brother spent the next three days giving it back to a Dodgers team that met the moment while the Padres recoiled from it.

Fanned Diego.

It was a sweeping sweep of a sweep, the Dodgers winning their third consecutive game from the Padres on Sunday by a 5-4 margin that does not begin to elucidate the difference between these two teams.

The Dodgers now lead the National League West by two games, but it feels like 20. Both teams have 38 games remaining in the season, including three next weekend in San Diego, but any sort of real challenge by the Padres feels fabricated.

The Dodgers are the deeper team. The Dodgers are the more focused team. The Dodgers are the better team.

The final weekend blow was an eighth-inning, game-winning drive into the left-field pavilion by Mookie Betts, but this series wasn't nearly that close.

The Dodgers did everything right, and the Padres did everything dumb.

The Dodgers charged, and the Padres choked.

"Didn't play as well as we'd like to have, and the series didn't go like we wanted it to," Padres manager Mike Shildt said. "But... this team is more than in a great place."

That would nonetheless currently be second place, which, after this weekend, seems like an appropriate spot.

Meanwhile, for one of the few stretches in this curious summer, the Dodgers behaved like the first-place tenants they are.