Ejected in the first inning, Craig Stammen’s Padres hang on to avoid a Dodgers sweep with a 5-2 win

The Padres turned a fast-breaking first inning into a statement of urgency, then cashed in with timely hitting to beat the Dodgers 5-2 on Sunday and prevent San Diego from being swept. Craig Stammen, San Diego’s manager, was ejected three pitches into the game, an early disruption that could have set a chaotic tone. Instead, the Padres settled into the work and delivered enough offense in key innings to avoid the four-game-series collapse.

The confrontation began with an extended argument over a check-swing call involving Fernando Tatis Jr. According to reports, Stammen and infield coach Ryan Goins were both ejected after the opening at-bat, with the disagreement centered on the pitch decision rather than a play that developed over multiple phases of the game. For a club coming off eight straight losses and with five straight defeats to the Dodgers over the prior two weeks, the early expulsion underscored how desperate this moment was.

For several innings, however, the game did not look like it belonged to a team that was trying to reverse its fortunes quickly. Neither side recorded a hit through the first three innings, and the game’s early rhythm was defined more by hesitation and pitch-to-contact than by traction on the basepaths. The Padres broke through in the fourth inning when Jackson Merrill delivered an RBI single, the first meaningful run created in a matchup that had felt tight even before the scoring began.

San Diego’s ability to stay close depended on pitching control and patience at the plate. Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan worked into the middle innings but was limited to 4 1/3 innings. The Padres countered with left-hander JP Sears, who entered with a difficult stretch but responded by holding Los Angeles scoreless for five innings. Reporting indicates Sears did not allow his first hit until a late sequence, when Miguel Rojas singled in his second-to-last at-bat, a sign that the Padres’ plan to turn the game into a slow burn was working.

The late swing arrived in the seventh inning, when San Diego pulled away with four runs. Kyle Hurt was tagged for the big inning, and Manny Machado provided the centerpiece with a three-run homer that widened the gap and shifted the pressure decisively back toward the Dodgers. Los Angeles answered with two runs in the bottom of the seventh on RBI singles from Alex Freeland and Shohei Ohtani, but the comeback stopped there as the Padres preserved the remainder of the lead.

With the win, San Diego avoided losing the series outright and improved its immediate posture within the National League West. The Dodgers remained the dominant force in the standings, keeping a large gap over the Padres, while San Diego moved back into a tie for second place in the division. For the Padres, the focus now turns less to what happened in this single contest and more to whether the pitching-and-timing template they showed Sunday can hold up across the rest of the stretch.

What to watch next is how the Padres respond internally after a manager ejection so early in a game. An incident like this can either sharpen a team’s sense of identity or distract from execution, but the win suggests San Diego found a way to convert intensity into results. For Los Angeles, the bigger question is how a team with strong season momentum handles a lineup that was still capable of producing late damage after a hitless early start.