SAN DIEGO — There is no shell-shock that comes from being in this position again, so the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t express any. Just 27 outs separate this team from a third consecutive first-round exit.
A 6-5 loss to the San Diego Padres in Game 3 of the National League Division Series has created their latest challenge: staying alive to force a winner-take-all Game 5.
“What’s done is done now,” Shohei Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “So at this point, it’s really very simple. It’s to win two games.”
Such is life on the brink, again.
“We can’t look at the mountain,” Mookie Betts said.
But they do have to climb it. So much has looked difficult for the Dodgers. Now, they’ll have to win two times over the next three nights to stay alive.
“Not a great situation,” manager Dave Roberts said.
It took a span of 20 minutes for disaster to strike these Dodgers on Tuesday night. It came after Betts’ first-inning home run gave Los Angeles 1-0 edge and provided the first lead for a Dodgers starting pitcher in two postseasons. Handed a sliver of momentum, the Dodgers squandered it. A record crowd of 47,744 at Petco Park roared to life the next inning behind franchise cult hero Manny Machado, with a chorus chanting his name loud enough that Walker Buehler could not hear his PitchCom device and drew a pitch-clock violation. Machado would smack a 2-1 cutter up the middle to begin the domino inning.
Manny Machado advances to third on a throwing error by Freddie Freeman pic.twitter.com/FEOpgsUIvm
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 9, 2024
Jackson Merrill followed by chopping a grounder that brought Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman to his knees at first base. Freeman threw to second in an attempt to capture Machado, the lead runner, if not turn a double play. Machado, who started on the infield dirt, was standing on the grass when Freeman’s throw ricocheted off his helmet and careened into left field.
Whether that qualified as obstruction, a non-challengeable play up to the umpire’s discretion, drew mixed responses in the Dodgers’ clubhouse Tuesday night. Roberts called it “a heady play.” Freeman said, “I would have done the same thing as a base runner.”
“I mean, both feet are on the grass,” Buehler said. “I don’t think that’s part of the baseline.”
“He was pretty far inside of the grass … in the perfect moment for the ball to hit him in the helmet,” Miguel Rojas said.
Xander Bogaerts followed with a groundball that Rojas fielded and tried to start a double play himself rather than flip the ball to Gavin Lux at second base. Everyone was safe, the tying run scored and Rojas aggravated the torn adductor he’s played through for months — “a bad decision,” Rojas acknowledged.
David Peralta hooked a double past a diving Freeman, driving in two runs to make it 3-1 and push the Padres ahead for good. Jake Cronenworth reached on a tapper to short, another ball that didn’t leave the infield.
Not long after, Fernando Tatis Jr. blew the lid off the game. Buehler left a two-strike fastball over the plate. Tatis launched it into the seats in left-center for a two-run homer, making it 6-1.
Of the six two-strike counts Buehler would get in the inning, just one was converted into an out.
“I just couldn’t make the one pitch to kind of stop it,” Buehler said. Once he returned to the dugout, he flung his glove onto the bench. Then, he grabbed something from the top and flung it to the ground. Then he gritted his teeth and managed to get through five innings.
San Diego boasts baseball’s most contact-heavy lineup; Tuesday’s second inning reflected the chaos that can create.
Somehow, the Dodgers almost found a way to make all that irrelevant. Rojas singled and limped down the line as hits from Ohtani and Betts loaded the bases. When Padres starter Michael King left a breaking ball up to Teoscar Hernández, the run-producing threat lived up to his billing. He crushed it, with his grand slam cutting the deficit to 6-5.
That’s as close as the Dodgers would get. A parade of valuable Dodgers relievers who will likely be called upon for a bullpen game in Game 4 on Wednesday kept the score firm. But after Hernández’s homer, the offense could not capitalize on any momentum.
In the eighth, the Dodgers brought up their three best hitters against Padres deadline acquisition Tanner Scott. The lefty struck out Ohtani for the third time in as many tries this series, this time getting him looking at a slider (“He’s a really good pitcher,” Ohtani said after). Betts connected on a center-cut fastball that died harmlessly into Merrill’s glove in center. After Freeman singled to snap a stretch of 16 consecutive plate appearances by the Dodgers without reaching base since the grand slam, San Diego closer Robert Suarez entered and got Hernández to pop out on a 100 mph fastball.
“We hit back, just not hard enough,” Will Smith said.
By the time Suarez blew a 101 mph fastball past Gavin Lux, a familiar scene had unfolded. Two years ago, this ballpark roared to a frenzy as the upstart Padres engineered their NLDS upset over a Dodgers club that won 111 games. A year ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks unleashed a power display at Chase Field to eradicate a Dodgers team that won 100.
A third consecutive NLDS exit to a division foe is one loss away.
“I’m not even thinking about the last couple years,” Freeman said. “If you’re thinking about the last couple years now, that’s the wrong attitude.”
Winning on Wednesday, Freeman said, is what matters. Doing so will require something the Dodgers haven’t managed to do in seven tries since Game 5 of the 2021 NLDS against the San Francisco Giants: winning a playoff game away from Dodger Stadium.
All that, just to get back there.
“We have to play the game and figure it out as we go,” Betts said. “But there’s no magic to it.”
These Dodgers are hobbled. Rojas left the game immediately before Hernández’s slam in the third inning, unable to keep going on that bothersome left leg. Max Muncy winced and grabbed at his side where he previously tore his oblique after a check swing on a sinker from King in the third. Freeman, who has required heavy medication and treatment just to play for parts of these three games, wore a heavy wrap around his side in addition to the tape around his severely sprained right ankle.
Will he play Wednesday, facing elimination?
“Tomorrow is tomorrow,” Freeman said.
And they’re running out of time to give themselves another tomorrow to look forward to.
(Photo of Shohei Ohtani: Harry How / Getty Images)
