After making three strong starts in succession, San Diego Padres rookie right-hander Ryan Bergert will get the biggest test of his young career when he pitches on the road against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night.

Adding to the responsibility is that Bergert, 25, will try to avoid a four-game sweep by the Dodgers. In a stretch of seven games between the National League West rivals in 11 days, the Dodgers are 5-1 so far.

Bergert (1-0, 2.33 ERA) made his major league debut on April 26 and had four relief outings before going back to Triple-A El Paso. He returned June 3 and has delivered a 2.93 ERA in three starts, including a five-inning effort Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks in which he gave up three runs and three hits in a no-decision as the Padres lost 8-7.

Bergert also had a career-best eight strikeouts that matched his total from his previous six outings.

The Padres rallied to tie Wednesday’s game against the Dodgers in the ninth inning on a sacrifice fly from Jake Cronenworth and an RBI double from Xander Bogaerts. But Dodgers pinch hitter Will Smith won it in the ninth on a home run to right field against Robert Suarez.

Los Angeles has won five consecutive games and has gone 7-2 in a 10-game stretch against division opponents in the Padres and San Francisco Giants.

“This was sort of the gauntlet,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We talked about it a couple weeks ago. And our guys rose to the occasion. And we’re playing much better baseball. Finding ways to win. And against division foes. So yeah, happy, but we got one more, and I want to put these guys away.”

The Dodgers will send right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-5, 2.64 ERA) to the mound on Thursday following a rough outing. He gave up five runs in a 6-2 loss to the Giants on Friday to tie a season high while walking five over 4 2/3 innings.

Yamamoto has two career starts against the Padres, both last season. He went 0-1 with a 12.00 ERA that mostly was due to his major league debut on March 21 of last year when he gave up five runs in just one inning in a game at Seoul, South Korea.

The Dodgers’ Andy Pages has six hits, five runs, two homers and four RBIs in the first three games of the series but also has been hit by pitches twice. That includes once Wednesday, one day after both benches were warned. Roberts said he saw no intent in Wednesday’s hit by pitch.

The Padres also have hit Shohei Ohtani with a pitch and saw Roberts get ejected after disputing Wednesday’s warning to both benches. But in the duel on the scoreboard, they are 0-3 in the series and have lost 10 of 14 since June 4.

“I have complete confidence that yeah, we’ll get those bigger hits and add on in the fifth or sixth,” San Diego manager Mike Shildt said. “We’ll get those shut-down innings in the fifth and sixth. And before you know it, we’ll start to reel off three, four, five, six, seven series in a row and we’ll be in a great spot.”

–Field Level Media