Scoring runs was the hardest thing in the world for the Dodgers for the first 23 innings of this weekend series at Petco Park in San Diego. But Freddie Freeman homered twice, and Dalton Rushing hit a game-changing three-run home run in a decisive seventh inning to beat the Padres 8-2 on Sunday to leave San Diego in a first-place tie atop the National League West.

There are still 31 games left on the schedule, and nothing has been decided. But the Dodgers could have made things much harder on themselves had they not finally found some semblance of offense.

The Dodgers trailed 2-1 in the sixth inning, which was looking a lot like many Yoshinobu Yamamoto starts this season, with very little run support. Ninth-place hitter and backup catcher Elias Díaz took advantage of a cement-mixer fastba

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