Shohei Ohtani helps push the Dodgers past the Padres in NLDS Game 1

The redemption tour began exactly as the Dodgers envisioned when they signed Shohei Ohtani to his $700 million contract in the offseason.

With one of the superstar's thunderous, undoubtedly game-changing home run hits.

In one inning of their postseason opener on Saturday night, the Dodgers experienced nightmarish flashbacks to last year and faced another big hole after another poor performance from their Game 1 starter.

The 53,028 towel-waving fans at Dodger Stadium had been silenced. The San Diego Padres experienced some early momentum on the visitors' bench.

But then, in a sequence that had eluded the Dodgers during their postseason failures in recent years, Ohtani came in and immediately wiped the slate clean in his first career playoff game.

In the Dodgers' 7-5 victory in the opening game of this year's National League Division Series, Ohtani hit a three-run home run to tie the game and erase the early deficit.

It gave the Dodgers life. It created a sellout crowd at Chavez Ravine. And most importantly, it was the decisive win in Game 1, giving the Dodgers an opening goal in this week's best-of-five series.

The Dodgers didn't take the lead until the fourth inning on Saturday, when Teoscar Hernández led off with a two-run single to center field. Their only run after that came after a careless throwing error by Manny Machado in the fifth.

But without Ohtani's early bang, there might not have been a plot twist midway through the game.

After back-to-back postseasons in which the Dodgers failed to contend in playoff games, Ohtani made sure Saturday would be different.

After the Padres lost 3-0 by three runs in the first inning, in which Yoshinobu Yamamoto struggled with his command and Machado missed a two-strike splitter for a two-run home run, the Dodgers' rally began in the second inning at the end of the lineup.

Will Smith drew a leadoff walk. Gavin Lux followed with a single. And with two ons and two outs, the Padres had no choice but to pitch Ohtani.

San Diego starter Dylan Cease started the attack cautiously, throwing the first two pitches well out of the zone before Ohtani fouled a fastball on his knee. But after Ohtani dug back in, Cease challenged him with an elevated heater similar to the one that resulted in a flyout on Ohtani's first at-bat.

This time the 30-year-old Japanese star was ready.

He cleared the fence in front of the pavilion on the right with a line-propelled rocket that traveled 372 feet and nearly 110 mph, a single big swing that made it 3-3.

The Padres briefly took the lead again in the third when Yamamoto capped his three-inning start with two more runs on a double by Xander Bogaerts.

But in the bottom of the fourth, the Dodgers responded again, mounting a three-run rally to take a 6-5 lead.

This inning began with a bunt single by Tommy Edman and a line drive knock by Miguel Rojas. Ohtani broke his bat against left-hander Adrian Morejon, but had enough behind it to land a shot down the middle. Then, in a strange decision, the Padres decided to intentionally walk Mookie Betts in a 2-and-2 count, giving him first base after a wild pitch scored a run and allowed the other two runners to advance.

Apparently the hope was to get Freddie Freeman to play a double play, limited by a sprained ankle – and only given the green light to start the game a few hours before the first pitch – but still played with two hits and one stolen Base.

Freeman did hit a grounder, but it was soft enough that first baseman Donovan Solano had no choice but to throw it home for a force out.

After the inning was extended, Hernández capitalized on the next at-bat, drilling his two-run single past Padres outfielder Jackson Merrill up the middle to give the Dodgers the lead.

Six scoreless innings from the LA bullpen prevented the lead from changing again.