Dee Gordon had three hits, two walks, three stolen bases, and drove in the winning run as the Dodgers pulled out a 6-5 win over the Padres Saturday night at Petco Park in San Diego. Gordon's single to right field scored A.J. Ellis in the top of the 11th to provide the winning run.
In the first inning, Gordon singled to center then stole second base. He advanced to third base on a ground ball to second base by Mark Ellis, then scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Matt Kemp.
In the third inning Gordon drew a two-out walk, then stole second base again. He was distracting enough to induce a pair of pickoff attempts at second base from pitcher Dustin Moseley, and Ellis followed with a walk. Kemp singled to center to drive in Gordon and extend his own hitting streak to 15 game,s, the second longest of his career. Andre Ethier followed with a two-run double to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.
A.J. Ellis followed in the fourth inning with a home run to left field, the third of his career, to give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.
Chris Capuano was pitching fine into the fifth inning when all of a sudden he lost his command. He walked three batters, the last forcing in a run to make it 5-1 with two outs. Capuano was removed with the bases loaded, no longer eligible for the win, and Jamey Wright and Scott Elbert allowed four inherited runs to score to tie the game at five. But the rest of the Dodgers bullpen pitched six scoreless innings to bide time for Gordon's heroics.
"After that fifth inning our bullpen was lights out," manager Don Mattingly said.
Aaron Harang, who was 14-7 with a 3.64 ERA with San Diego last season, pitches for the Dodgers on Sunday as they go for the four-game sweep. Clayton Richard will start for the Padres.
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