Dodgers bounce back, beat Padres in Game 1 of NL Division Series – San Diego Union-Tribune

LOS ANGELES – The Dodgers have little trouble getting into October, but once they got there, they had a lot of problems.

So this year they've tried a new approach and some new talking points to match their opponent's intensity and payback and all sorts of other things in terms of focus and attitude.

“I’m just trying to throw the first strike,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday afternoon. “…I expect us to be ready to fight.”

The Padres went out and struck out first in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, but the Dodgers threw some tough hits to climb back up twice, winning 7-5 on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.

It was a game worthy of the postseason, with ups and downs, clutch shots and big outs.

The Dodgers made more of the latter two, especially late.

The Padres took a 3-0 lead in the first inning and retook the lead 5-3 in the third inning before going hitless until the ninth inning and rarely threatening in the final six innings.

The Dodgers won a major league-best 98 games this season, making their 12th consecutive postseason appearance. But they entered Saturday having lost six straight playoff games — in the 2022 NLDS against the Padres and last year against the Diamondbacks.

For the first time since 2021, they are now two wins away from advancing to the NL Championship Series.

The Padres will try to even the series on Sunday, as they did in Game 2 here in 2022.

On Saturday, they jumped on Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the third time in his three starts against them this season.

Luis Arraez started the game with a single down the third base line, went to second on a passed ball and to third on a wild pitch before Fernando Tatis Jr. walked. Jurickson Profar's groundout to second base scored Arraez and moved Tatis to second base before Manny Machado fired a splitter that lodged waist-high in the stands behind left-center field.

The Padres scored nine runs in the first inning against Yamamoto and 13 runs in his nine total innings against them.

What they got on Saturday wasn't enough as the Dodgers waited patiently for Padres starter Dylan Cease. They simply don't chase many throws out of the zone and refused to offer the cease slider that successfully lures so many batters.

A leadoff walk to Will Smith started the bottom of the second inning. Gavin Lux followed with a single before Cease struck out No. 8 hitter Tommy Edman and scored Miguel Rojas on a pop-up.

Cease then fell behind 2-0 against Shohei Ohtani before the slugger missed a throw to his left knee. Ohtani took a few moments to walk through the dirt before stepping in and firing a 97 mph fastball at the top of the zone just behind the wall in right field.

Cease struck out Mookie Betts with his 54th pitch to end the second inning.

Tatis led off the third inning with a double into the gap in left-center. After Profar popped out and Machado flied out in left field, Jackson Merrill recovered and issued a walk after the score was 0-2. And Xander Bogaerts followed with a double down the left field line to bring both runners around.

Cease had bypassed a leadoff single and a stolen base by Freddie Freeman to get through the third, needing 18 more pitches to do so.

He started the fourth with one out before a bunt single by Edman and a single to left field by Rojas ended his night.

Left-hander Adrián Morejón was brought in to face left-hander Ohtani, and the presumptive National League MVP blasted a broken-bat single into center field to load the bases.

With Betts ahead, a splitter from Morejón got past Higashioka while Edman ran home unchallenged and the other two runners moved up.

That caused the Padres to intentionally walk Betts, which loaded the bases.

And after first baseman Donovan Solano made a gutsy throw home to put out Rojas after a grounder by Freeman, the Padres were just shy of escaping with the lead before Teoscar Hernández hit a two-run single to center field off the new one Pitcher Jeremiah Estrada got the Dodgers pitching for the first time.

They added an unearned run against Estrada in the sixth, with the help of an error by Machado, who fielded a routine grounder from Will Smith and threw it high over Solano and into the Padres' dugout.

That put Smith on second base, and he advanced to third base on a single from Gavin Lux and scored on Edman's double-play grounder.

Yamamoto was subbed out early in the fourth, and Kyle Higashioka's one-out double off Ryan Brasier would be the Padres' last hit until Tatis hit a two-out single in the ninth.

Three Dodgers relievers retired 11 batters in a row before Profar took the lead with a walk against Michael Kopech in the eighth inning. A one-out walk (on 10 pitches) from Merrill to Kopech and a two-out walk from Jake Cronenworth to Blake Treinen loaded the bases before Donovan Solano struck out.

Treinen gave up Tatis' hit and then went to Profar before ending the game by taking out Machado.

Originally published: October 5, 2024 at 9:16 p.m