LOS ANGELES — After spotting the San Diego Padres a six-run lead through two innings on Thursday night, the Dodgers needed just three innings to make it a moot point.
Read more Angels hold Mariners to 2 hits but still get swept
They weren’t satisfied with just erasing a big deficit, however,
The Dodgers kept pounding away before eventually coasting to a 12-7 victory at Dodger Stadium, cementing their largest comeback victory in nearly four years.
Kyle Tucker has reached base in nine straight plate appearances after contributing his first four-hit game as a Dodger and also drawing a walk in the opener of the four-game series.
Dalton Rushing also had four hits, scored three runs and drove in four for the Dodgers, who last won after trailing by six or more runs on July 13, 2022, when they rallied from a 6-0 deficit in the seventh inning to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6.
Max Muncy contributed two hits and two RBIs, and Tommy Edman and Mookie Betts also had two hits and scored twice for the Dodgers.
For the second consecutive start, Dodgers right-hander Roki Sasaki surrendered a three-run homer in the second inning to put his team in that six-run hole, but his offense exploded for 17 hits, including seven for extra bases.
Rushing began the comeback in the bottom half of the second when he lined a two-run homer just over the fence in right-center field with Tucker aboard to cut it to 6-2.
The Dodgers tacked on two more runs in the third on an RBI double by Muncy and a run-scoring single by Tucker to trim the deficit to 6-4.
Padres starter Randy Vasquez was finished after three innings and Rushing and Edman greeted Wandy Peralta with back-to-back singles to start the fourth. Andy Pages then scorched a two-run double down the third-base line to tie it at 6-6.
The Dodgers weren’t finished in the inning, as Betts found the left-center field gap for a run-scoring double to give the Dodgers a 7-6 lead. Muncy then rolled a single up the middle to score Betts and make it 8-6.
Back-to-back doubles by Rushing and Edman in the fifth made it 9-6. Edman then stole third base standing up and came home on a wild pitch for a 10-6 lead.
Read more Dodgers’ Dalton Rushing will catch Shohei Ohtani against Padres on Friday
Tucker smashed his fourth hit of the game down the left-field line for an opposite-field double in the sixth and came home on a sacrifice fly by Rushing for an 11-6 cushion.
Rushing tacked on an RBI single in the eighth to extend the lead to 12-6.
Dodgers’ Dalton Rushing will catch Shohei Ohtani against Padres on Friday
Sasaki was facing the Padres for the second straight time after lasting four innings last Friday in San Diego and departing after allowing three runs and three hits, walking a season-high five and striking out two.
The difference in Sasaki’s last outing was he made it through the first inning unscathed and even took a 1-0 lead into the second before giving up a three-run blast to Ty France in the eventual 7-1 victory.
The Padres were ready for Sasaki right from the start on Thursday.
Fernando Tatís Jr. delivered his hardest-hit ball of the season on the first pitch from Sasaki, lacing a 115.7 mph double into the left-center field gap.
Sasaki’s next offering was in the dirt for a wild pitch, moving Tatis to third.
Sasaki absorbed a comebacker from Jake Cronenworth for the first out, but Manny Machado came up next and lifted the second pitch he saw from Sasaki over the fence in left-center for a two-run homer.
After the Dodgers stranded runners on second and third in their half of the first, Jackson Merrill hit Sasaki’s second pitch of the second inning for an opposite-field homer to left center, stretching the lead to 3-0.
Xander Bogaerts then hammered a ground-rule double down the left-field line and Tatis walked on four pitches with two outs to put runners on the corners.
Cronenworth then pulled a two-strike splitter over the fence in right for a three-run homer that doubled the lead to 6-0.
Sasaki managed to get through the third without allowing a run, but his night was done.
Read more Angels impressed with Denzer Guzman’s quiet confidence
Will Klein (3-2) pitched the fourth and fifth innings to earn the win.
More to come on this story.