The Los Angeles Dodgers entered the night with an 8-3 record against the San Diego Padres this season and 33-18 against the National League West. Roberto Hernandez battled through five innings against the Padres, giving up eight hits that led to four runs, three of those being earned runs; he also struck out two and walked two.

Hernandez began the game retiring the first three batters on eleven pitches. A defensive miscue from Scott Van Slyke in the second didn’t help the three runs that piled in across the plate in the third inning. Hernandez threw 91 pitches in his start in the second game of the series.

Dee Gordon came in to pinch hit for Hernandez in the fifth. Pedro Baez entered the game in relief, batting in the number one spot with Gordon remaining at second base. Baez allowed two runs to the first two batters here faced in his Major League career. Since then, he has an ERA of 0.00 in nine innings, retiring 26 of 32 batters.

The scoring for Los Angeles began in the third inning with a single from Yasiel Puig. A ground rule double from Adrian Gonzalez to right field moved Puig to third base. Matt Kemp’s sacrifice fly moved Puig home for the first run of the game for the boys in blue, cutting the lead to two.

The Padres answered with one in the fourth for the 4-1 lead. The next best chance for the Dodgers came in the eighth with a leadoff single from Gordon, who proceeded to steal his 57th base, moving to second. Andre Ethier pinch hit for Brian Wilson and struck out, and Puig followed with a groundout to move Gordon to third.

Adrian Gonzalez walked to put two on for Kemp, who flew out to deep center field to end the inning. Van Slyke led off the ninth with a single down three runs. The combination of Justin Turner and Carl Crawford, who powered the offense in the win on Tuesday, committed two consecutive outs. Ellis grounded out to end the game.

Clayton Kershaw will make the start Thursday in the series finale with the Padres, pitching on regular rest. Don Mattingly has decided to push back Zack Greinke’s start to Saturday, giving him a few days extra rest with a sore elbow. Greinke will face the Mets at Dodger Stadium. There are no serious concerns about the health of Greinke, the rest is done for precautionary reasons only.  The Dodgers remain 3.5 games ahead of the San Francisco Giants for first place in the NL West.