This time it was something else.
This time, the ball came off Goreksson Profar’s glove. This time, the Dodgers are back.
But this time it had the same result.
Because the Padres stayed the same.
“That’s what we were,” Jake Cronenworth said. “I think it’s in our DNA. It’s who we are as a team now.”
The Padres beat the Dodgers 6-5 on Tuesday night, and are one victory away from advancing to the National League Championship Series.
“The job is not over yet,” Manny Machado said. “…We have to go out there and compete. It’s not going to be easy. It wasn’t easy. Look what we did today.”
The Padres held off an early offensive outburst due to a late stand next to the bullpen that was beefed up at the trade deadline, with the workhorse closing in on the game throughout.
“People have been talking about our barn and how the lights go out,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “They definitely showed up today and showed why they are one of the best players in baseball right now.”
It was Tatis who capped the second inning with a six-run home run that put the Padres up 6-1 before Teoscar Hernandez led the Dodgers to a 6-5 lead with a grand slam in the third inning.
Neither team scored again.
Jeremiah Estrada took a perfect sixth, followed by Jason Adam in seventh.
Left-hander Tanner Scott started the eighth inning by striking out Shohei Ohtani for the fourth time in their five meetings over the past two weeks. Mookie Betts followed with a fly ball to center field before Freddie Freeman singled up the middle.
That brought out Shildt and Robert Suarez to face Hernandez, who walked out to first baseman Luis Arraez.
Suarez struck out Max Muncy, got Will Smith to a groundout and struck out Gavin Lux to secure the Padres’ second straight win after losing in the opener of the best-of-five series.
“What a game, man,” Xander Bogaerts said. “I mean, 6-1, Teoskar pitched a great swing, 6-5. And it stays that way. You know, nobody probably thought it would stay that way after all that offense. … The bullpen kept that game there. It’s “An incredible mission.”
The first two and a half rounds were so wild, the match so full of meaning and tension that the drama of the previous three days seemed like a distant memory.
During pregame introductions, most of the 47,774 people packed inside Petco Park booed Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as loudly as anyone booed in the building. After Roberts accused Machado of throwing a baseball at him during the second game.
There are still memories of Sunday’s game, where some fans at Dodger Stadium threw objects on the field near Padres players, causing a delay in the seventh inning. There was enough concern about what might happen in Game 3 that Padres CEO Eric Gruebner sent an email to ticket holders on Monday imploring them to behave appropriately.
Most of the talk before the game was about Sunday’s events and what has been said since.
The hectic start jolted everyone into the present.
The madness begins with a near-impossible repeat of the gameplay from the second game, but with the opposite result.
After the Padres’ Michael King started the game by striking out Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts sent a full-out sweeper to left field. Profar ran back, jumped over the short wall in the corner and extended his hand, only to catch the ball off the tip of his glove and fall for a home run.
In the first inning on Sunday, Betts got past second base and was beaming on a nearly identical trip to left field in the first inning in Game 2 before learning that Profar had caught his glove practically extended in the second row.
Betts thought the same thing had happened again Tuesday, and he actually swerved off the dirt and onto the turf back toward the dugout. The umpires finally indicated it was a home run, and Betts resumed his run around the bases.
Walker Buehler retired the Padres in order in the first inning before King powered the top of the second inning with seven scores.
Machado started the bottom half of the inning with a single, and the Dodgers melted momentarily.
Jackson Merrill sent a ground ball to first baseman Freddie Freeman, whose throw hit Machado on the shoulder and rolled into left field. Machado ran to third base, giving the Padres runners on the corners. Machado was intentionally on the edge of the turf when the ball hit him, which is legal, as the runner is allowed to create his own running path until the throw is made and Machado was moving backwards toward the bag when he was hit.
“This rally probably wouldn’t have started if he hadn’t made that play,” Tatis said. “That’s how big this is for us.”
Bogaerts followed with a groundout to ground out Miguel Rojas, who hesitated to throw to second baseman Max Muncy, who clearly assumed Rojas would take two steps and touch the bag himself. By the time Rojas did so, Merrill had slid safely, and Bogaerts beat the next throw to take first place. Meanwhile, Machado scored.
“Obviously playing with Freddie and the ground ball to Meggie we couldn’t get the leadoff runner,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We couldn’t get Merrill out there at second base. And he just keeps stressing the inning. … When you give a good team extra points, it’s hard to come up with zeros.”
David Peralta then grounded a double into first base and into the right corner, scoring both runners. Cronenworth hit a ball to Rojas in the hole and reached a pitch that moved Peralta to third base. Peralta scored a goal from Kyle Higashioka’s pass that made the score 4-1 before Luis Arraez scored the second goal.
Tatis made it 6-0 by sending an 0-2 fastball 396 feet to left-center field.
The roar of perhaps the largest crowd ever assembled at Petco Park in far downtown was heard when Tatis’ fourth home run of the postseason hit the striped scoreboard in front of the second deck of seats.
“I saw our team identity on display,” Shildt said. “A lot of what we talk about is an offensive machine. … The effort level and the base running was great. The two-hander was good. … It has a lot to do with our identity and is a big part of the game. Six big points.”
The Padres ran away for a 10-2 win in Game 2, but any notion that the Dodgers had faded under the weight of their past postseason failures was quickly quashed.
Rojas, Ohtani and Betts started the third inning with singles to load the bases with no outs.
A line drive to left field prevented pinch runner Andy Buggs, who had replaced Rojas, from scoring.
But after taking an 0-2 lead over Hernandez, as he did against Betts, King sent a sweeper into a similar spot that delivered the fateful throw to Betts. Hernandez hit a grand slam just behind the wall in center field to pull the Dodgers to within one.
They didn’t get any closer, and are now one loss away from having to make the long trip back up Interstate 5 with their season ending sooner than expected.
The Padres can head to their second NLCS in three years with another win.
“It’s nice to get two,” Shildt said. “But it doesn’t matter until we get three.”
Originally published:
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