Smith helps Dodgers catch all the breaks

He throws out three runners as stumbling Padres make it easy for L.A. in 6-0 win.

- BY JACK HARRIS

GINA FERAZZI Los Angeles Times MIGUEL ROJAS tags out Xander Bogaerts at second base on Saturday night, when the Dodgers clinched the head-to-head tiebreaker against their rivals.

The San Diego Padres' performance on Saturday could probably be put in a tutorial video.

Suggested title: How NOT to play a baseball game.

On a night the surging Padres were trying to bounce back from the Dodgers' opening win in this weekend's pivotal three-game series, one that tied the two Southern California rivals atop the National League West standings, the club instead put on an exhibition of poor, sloppy and outright comical execution.

While the once-slumping Dodgers have raised their level of play the last two nights, the Padres have made mistakes even Little League coaches would be reprimanding.

Except in their case, even the coaching appeared to be part of the problem.

In the Dodgers' 6-0 wina victory that restored their solo lead in the division, and clinched their head-to-head season series against the Padres in case of a tiebreaker at the end of the year - San Diego did all it could to give the game away from the start.

In the top of the first, three of the Padres' first four batters recorded a hit against Blake Snell, the ex-Padre left-hander making his first start against the team since leaving in free agency at the end of 2023. But twice, Dodgers catcher Will Smith caught a runner trying to steal second, gunning down Fernando Tatis Jr. after his leadoff single before getting Manny Machado on the back end of an attempted double-steal to retire the side.

"We had a plan," Padres manager Mike Shildt said. "And they made some plays."