SAN DIEGO – Clear.

The Dodgers promoted their top prospect, Dalton Rushing, to the majors in May and told him to watch and learn. More recently, Manager Dave Roberts had a talk with Rushing and reminded him that his primary concern should be his defense.

He did more than that Sunday afternoon, shocking the Dodgers’ flat-lining offense to life in an 8-2 victory over the San Diego Padres.

Rushing’s three-run home run in the seventh inning broke a 2-2 tie and prevented a three-game sweep by the Padres that would have sent the Dodgers home in second place. Instead, the two teams emerged from their six-games-in-10-days gauntlet in a dead heat atop the NL West standings with 31 games left in the regular season – none of them against each other.

Dominated by Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes – bot

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