SAN DIEGO —
Within the run-up to this week’s Nationwide League Division Collection, it was the quietest participant on the Dodgers roster who delivered probably the most profound speech.
This collection, soft-spoken veteran Chris Taylor advised his teammates in a hitter’s assembly earlier than Sport 1 on Saturday, can be all about depth.
“Every time we play these guys, they always have high intensity and a lot of energy,” Taylor stated of the San Diego Padres, recounting the message of his tackle to a reporter a day later. So, he implored the membership, “We need to match that.”
Coming into Sport 3 on Tuesday, the bar to take action had reached the stratosphere.
Over the earlier 48 hours, the psychological dynamic of this rivalry matchup dramatically shifted.
And by first pitch at Petco Park, all of it led to at least one query: Which group would deal with their uncooked feelings higher, and successfully channel them over the remainder of this best-of-five collection?
The reply got here 9 innings, 11 runs and one disastrous bottom-of-the-second sequence later.
The Padres defeated the Dodgers 6-5 — giving San Diego a two video games to at least one benefit within the NLDS, and placing the Dodgers’ season on the brink.
The Dodgers had began Tuesday’s recreation properly, taking a uncommon first-inning lead on a Mookie Betts dwelling run; one which narrowly missed a Jurickson Profar theft try in left discipline that was eerily much like his Sport 2 snag at Dodger Stadium, and ended a 23 at-bat hitless streak within the postseason for Betts that stretched all the way in which again to 2022.
For as soon as, the Dodgers weren’t observing a deficit out of the gate.
As a substitute, they face-planted making an attempt to make the primary flip.
The six-run second inning started in ominous trend, with beginning pitcher Walker Buehler being assessed a pitch clock violation and computerized ball after struggling to listen to his PitchCom system amid deafening chants of “Manny! Manny!” for Machado on the plate.
Machado capitalized on the depend leverage, rolling a 2-and-1 single via the infield. Then, the 13-year veteran made a heady (albeit controversial) play on the bases, taking a circuitous path to second on a possible double-play grounder to get in the way in which of Freddie Freeman’s throw from first.
Buehler induced one other potential double-play grounder from Xander Bogaerts within the subsequent at-bat, however shortstop Miguel Rojas squandered it. As a substitute of flipping the ball to second baseman Gavin Lux for at the very least one positive out, Rojas tried to shuffle there himself. Nonetheless, enjoying with an adductor damage that later compelled him from the sport, Rojas received to the bag too late, after which watched Bogaerts beat out his throw to first.
One run scored. No outs have been recorded. And as Buehler’s pitch depend within the inning climbed, his effectiveness shortly waned.
Buehler received his subsequent batter, former Dodgers outfielder David Peralta, to 2 strikes, earlier than throwing an inside fastball that was yanked down the road for a two-run double. The identical factor occurred to the next hitter, Jake Cronenworth, who hit an elevated fastball with two strikes for a single, establishing Kyle Higashioka for a sacrifice fly.
With the rating 4-1 at that time, Fernando Tatis Jr. delivered the exclamation level.
In one other two-strike depend, Buehler threw one other fastball within the coronary heart of the strike zone. Tatis, recent off a two-homer show in San Diego’s Sport 2 win, was throughout it, going to the second deck in left discipline for a stadium-erupting blast and a 6-1 lead.
It was the type of inning that has doomed the Dodgers so usually in latest Octobers, stuffed with defensive miscues, poor pitching and — as soon as the tide began to show— an lack of ability to regular themselves earlier than it was too late.
These Dodgers did present some struggle to get again within the recreation, taking a giant chunk of the Padres’ lead on Teoscar Hernández’s grand slam within the high of the third inning.
Nonetheless, they made 16 straight outs after that, stranded their lone late-game baserunner within the eighth, then got here up empty within the ninth, wilting offensively within the face of a dominant Padres bullpen and 47,744 raucous followers.
Now, the Dodgers’ season is in uncomfortably acquainted territory, at risk of a third-straight NLDS elimination coming into Sport 4 on Wednesday night time.
