Dodgers fans lose their cool and Dodgers lose their edge in series-tying debacle
Two baseballs flew down toward the San Diego Padres’ Jurickson Profar from the left-field corner stands, the gutless moves of two cowards.
The water bottles flew down toward the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. from the right-field corner stands, the gutless moves of many cowards.
More than a game was lost Sunday night when the Padres equaled the National League division series at one game apiece with a 10-2 victory over the Dodgers.
An already tattered image was further damaged. An historically bad reputation was further stained. Anyone out there walking around town wearing a Dodger jersey today should be embarrassed.
On a national stage, a few bad actors among the largest Dodger Stadium crowd of the season only furthered the inaccurate and harmful narrative that Chavez Ravine is a place stocked with punks.
Jurickson Profar sets the tone for Padres in NLDS Game 2 win over Dodgers
The home run music started blaring through the Dodger Stadium speakers. Mookie Betts began rounding the bases and pointing toward the bullpen.
Just like the previous night, it appeared the Dodgers had erased an early deficit on the back of one of their superstar players.
Only then, however, did the 54,119 people at Chavez Ravine realize that Jurickson Profar had made a spectacular play instead.
If Shohei Ohtani’s game-tying homer in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night energized the Dodgers in a comeback victory, then Profar’s first-inning robbery of Betts in Game 2 did the exact opposite — frustrating the Dodgers, and what later became an unruly crowd, in an eventual 10-2, series-evening San Diego Padres win.
Padres hit two more home runs to secure blowout win
⚾ Padres 10, Dodgers 2 — FINAL
Top of the ninth — Kyle Higashioka hit a solo home run to center field off Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez. Two batters later, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a first-pitch, two-run home run to make it a 10-run game for the Padres.
It was Tatis’ second home run of the game, and the Padres star made sure Dodgers fans knew it, showing some extra celebratory flair as he ran the bases.
Bottom of the ninth: Facing Padres reliever Alek Jacob, Kiké Hernández flied out to center field and Teoscar Hernández lined out to second. Max Muncy followed with a solo home run on a deep blast to center field. Will Smith drew a walk and Gavin Lux struck out to end the game.
Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts hit back-to-back homers
⚾ Padres 7, Dodgers 1 — End of the eighth inning
Top of the eighth: After Manny Machado singled, rookie Jackson Merrill hit a two-run home run off Dodgers reliever Ryan Brasier to extend the Padres’ lead.
Xander Bogaerts then made it back-to-back homers for the Padres, hitting a 387-foot shot to center field off Michael Grove. Bogaerts was favoring his right leg as he jogged the bases after hitting the home run. He was replaced at shortstop by Tyler Wain in the bottom of the inning.
Fernando Tatis Jr. was shown on camera gesturing toward fans as the inning concluded. The Padres’ big inning came after Machado organized a quick meeting in the dugout after a tumultuous seventh inning.
Bottom of the eighth: Tommy Edman led off with a single against Padres reliever Tanner Scott. Miguel Rojas then popped out, Shohei Ohtani struck out and Mookie Betts grounded out, ending the inning.
Game delayed several minutes because of fans heckling Padres, throwing objects on field
⚾ Padres 4, Dodgers 1 — End of the seventh inning
Top of the seventh: Pinch-hitter Donovan Solano grounded out. The Dodgers then replaced Anthony Banda with Daniel Hudson. Kyle Higashioka and Luis Arraez grounded out.
Bottom of the seventh: The start of the bottom of the seventh was delayed several minutes after Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar appeared to be very upset with Dodgers fans. Someone in the crowd threw a baseball on the field toward Profar, and he was very animated talking to umpires and teammates as fans threw objects on the field. Dodger Stadium security officials met with umpires on the field and security personnel, at one point, were surrounding Profar.
Both Profar and Fernando Tatis Jr. have been interacting with fans throughout the game. The game resumed after a roughly 12-minute delay.
Once play resumed, Yu Darvish walked Teoscar Hernández before Max Muncy popped out, Will Smith grounded out and Gavin Lux flied out.
Freddie Freeman exits game; Padres extend their lead
⚾ Padres 4, Dodgers 1 — End of the sixth inning
Top of the sixth inning: Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman did not return to the field at the start of the sixth inning because of ankle discomfort, the Dodgers announced.
Freeman has been dealing with an ankle sprain he sustained against the Padres on Sept. 26.
The Dodgers moved Max Muncy from third to first and have Kiké Hernández covering third.
The inning opened with Jack Flaherty hitting Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch. Jurickson Profar reached first on a bunt single and then Manny Machado struck out.
The strikeout marked the end of Flaherty’s night, and the pitcher exchanged words with Profar and Machado before he left the field. Flaherty gave up five hits, four runs and struck out two over 5 1/3 innings.
Anthony Banda took over on the mound.
Padres rookie Jackson Merill welcomed Banda by hitting a run-scoring single to left to plate Tatis and make it a 4-1 game. Xander Bogaerts grounded out and Banda struck out Jake Cronenworth to end the frame.
Bottom of the sixth: The Dodgers went down in order, with San Diego rookie center fielder Jackson Merrill making a jumping catch at the wall on a flare hit by Kiké Hernández for the final out.
Jack Flaherty finding his stride, but Dodgers are looking for runs
⚾ Padres 3, Dodgers 1 — Fifth inning
Top of the fifth: Another 1-2-3 inning for Jack Flaherty, who has retired eight straight and has thrown 79 pitches so far.
Bottom of the fifth: Will Smith flied out before Gavin Lux singled to shallow center off Yu Darvish, who had retired 12 consecutive Dodger batters.
Tommy Edman grounded into a force out at second, beating the throw to first to stifle the double-play attempt. Edman stole second base before Miguel Rojas flied out to right field to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Fernando Tatis Jr. made a pretty stunning catch on a laser hit by Freddie Freeman:
He then took in the boos from Dodgers fans sitting in the pavilion:
Dodgers trail 3-1 heading into the fourth inning
⚾ Padres 3, Dodgers 1 — End of the third inning
Top of the third: Luis Arraez grounded out before Fernando Tatis Jr. ripped a double down the left-field line past a diving Max Muncy.
Jack Flaherty struck out Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado grounded out to cap the frame.
Bottom of the third: Miguel Rojas, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts are retired in order.
Padres extend their lead on David Peralta’s two-run home run
⚾ Padres 3, Dodgers 1 — End of the second inning
Top of the second: San Diego’s Jackson Merill hit a leadoff single before Xander Bogaerts and Jake Cronenworth grounded out. Former Dodger David Peralta then followed with a two-run home run to center field to extend San Diego’s lead.
Kyle Higashioka popped out to short for the third out.
Bottom of the second: Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy hit back-to-back singles off Yu Darvish to start the inning. Will Smith then drew a walk to load the bases.
Gavin Lux drove in Hernández for the Dodgers’ first run on a sacrifice fly to left field. Tommy Edman then lined straight to first baseman Luis Arraez, who tagged the bag to get Will Smith out for the unassisted double play.
Fernando Tatis Jr. hits solo home run and Mookie Betts gets robbed
⚾ Padres 1, Dodgers 0 — End of the first inning
Top of the first: Facing Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty, Luis Arraez flied out to right field. Fernando Tatis Jr. then hit a 387-foot solo home run into the Dodgers’ bullpen at Dodger Stadium to give San Diego a quick lead.
Flaherty then walked Jurickson Profar before Manny Machado grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to cap the frame.
Bottom of the first: Padres starting pitch Yu Darvish struck out Shohei Ohtani with a slider on the outside corner.
Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar then made an amazing catch to rob Mookie Betts of a home run at the short wall in the left-field corner. Profar showboated in front of the fans after making the catch — and Betts initially thought it was a home run.
Darvish struck out Freddie Freeman to end the inning.
Shohei Ohtani continues to defy explanation with his game-changing heroics
When Shohei Ohtani is concentrating in the batter’s box, what is that experience like for him? Does he feel as if the stadium is silent? Does he feel as if he’s not thinking?
“I feel as if I’m concentrating,” he said.
His lighthearted response elicited a chorus of laughter from the Japanese reporters in the Dodger Stadium interview room.
There continues to be no explanation for how Ohtani does what he does. In his first-ever postseason game, Ohtani played on Saturday as he did in his record-breaking regular season.
Dave Roberts says everyone in bullpen should be available for Game 2
The Dodgers needed five relievers to cover the last six innings of Game 1 on Saturday night.
Yet, Dave Roberts said everyone in his bullpen should be available for Game 2 on Sunday.
“I’m not concerned about usage; I’m concerned about winning tonight,” Roberts said. “We’ll deal with whatever pieces we have to going forward.”
That availability even extends to Blake Treinen, Roberts said, even though the veteran right-hander threw 39 pitches in a five-out save on Saturday.
“Even Blake Treinen said he felt good,” Roberts said. “He’s going to go out there, play catch [before the game]. But, again, we’re going to do everything we can to win today.”
In their 7-5 win, the Dodgers also used Ryan Brasier (1⅔ innings, 20 pitches), Alex Vesia (one inning, 13 pitches), Evan Phillips (1⅓ innings, 14 pitches) and Michael Kopech (⅓ inning, 22 pitches).
Along with Treinen, they combined for six scoreless innings to lock down the win.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s uneasy Game 1 start a fluke or a worrying sign?
The Dodgers anointed Shohei Ohtani as the highest-paid player in baseball history last December. In his first postseason game with the Dodgers, the $700-million man delivered: a home run, two hits, two runs scored, three runs driven in.
The Dodgers anointed Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the highest-paid pitcher (outside of Ohtani) in baseball history last December. In his first postseason game with the Dodgers, the $325-million man did not deliver.
Yamamoto put the Dodgers in a 3-0 hole in the first inning. He gave up two more runs in the third. He did not see the fourth.
In the end, none of that mattered. The Dodgers scored more runs in one game Saturday than they did in their entire postseason last year. Their bullpen pitched six shutout innings.
Shohei Ohtani showing more emotion at the plate: ‘This guy is not just a robot’
Shohei Ohtani punctuated his score-tying home run on Saturday night with a violent bat flip and a primal scream, the latest in a long line of demonstrative on-field displays from a two-way star who rarely displayed such emotion during his six years with the Angels.
Part of that, manager Dave Roberts said, is Ohtani being more comfortable in his surroundings and with his new teammates after signing a 10-year, $700-million deal with the Dodgers last December. The fact that Ohtani is finally playing in October for a team with the best record in baseball after six losing seasons in Anaheim also helps.
“I think over the course of the season, he’s become who he intrinsically is,” Roberts said. “He’s very isolated, very quiet, he stays to himself, private. But I do think that naturally, he is a goofy person. He’s fun-loving. He’s a crazy good competitor.
“When he sees people having fun, enjoying themselves in moments, I think we’ve seen more [of this behavior]. I think that’s a good thing for him because it’s honest. And it’s good for our players to see that, man, this guy is not just a robot. He’s like a real person who has emotions. I think this is good for everybody.”
Freddie Freeman’s ‘borderline miracle’ stolen base in NLDS Game 1 gives Dodgers chills
It wasn’t the most stunning October moment delivered by a gimpy Dodgers player in Chavez Ravine. That honor will always go to Kirk Gibson, who hobbled around the bases on two bum knees after his walk-off home run off Oakland Athletic closer Dennis Eckersley landed in the right-field pavilion in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
But it was up there.
After leading off the third inning of Saturday night’s National League Division Series-opening 7-5 victory over the the San Diego Padres with a single, Freddie Freeman — playing on a right ankle that was so severely sprained doctors told him “this is a four- to six-week [injured list] stint” — took off for second base.
Bottom of the Dodgers’ order made an impact in Game 1
The Dodgers’ lineup is a lot more potent when there are runners on base for Shohei Ohtani, and with the slugger in the leadoff spot, it is incumbent upon the bottom of the order to produce, preferably like it did in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
The team’s sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth batters — Will Smith, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas — combined for five hits, two walks and four runs on Saturday night to help the Dodgers to a 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres.
“There’s no easy out down there,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “With Miggy Ro being who he is this year, adding Tommy, Lux coming back into his own, it’s been really big for us. It just makes the lineup so deep, and it makes it really difficult [for opponents] to skip Shohei. It’s hard to not pitch to Shohei when there are a bunch of guys on base.”
Smith led off the second inning of the best-of-five series opener with a walk, Lux followed with a single to center field, and both scored when Ohtani lined a two-out, three-run home run to right field off Padres starter Dylan Cease to tie the score 3-3.
Edman, the switch-hitting utility man acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals at the trade deadline, sparked a three-run fourth-inning rally with a bunt single.
Rojas, who had one of the best offensive seasons in his 11-year career, with a .283 average, .748 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, six homers and 36 RBIs, followed with a single to left-center field.
Ohtani’s broken-bat single to center loaded the bases, and Edman scored on a wild pitch to trim San Diego’s lead to 5-4. Mookie Betts was intentionally walked to load the bases, Freddie Freeman grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Rojas forced out at home, and Teoscar Hernández lined a two-run single to center for a 6-5 Dodgers lead.
Smith also reached on an error to lead off the fifth and scored a big insurance run on Edman’s double-play grounder. Edman opened the eighth with a single to center and stole second base but didn’t score.
“Our mentality is to grind out pitches and have good at-bats regardless of the results,” Rojas said before Game 2 on Sunday. “If we have good at-bats and we get the starter to throw a lot of pitches like we did [in Game 1] — Cease was in trouble because we got a lot of 3-and-2 counts, and then Shohei got a good pitch to hit up in the zone.
“If we get quality at-bats from the bottom of the lineup, the top will get better pitches to hit and do damage, because that’s what they’re here for.”
Freddie Freeman back in the starting lineup for Game 2
Freddie Freeman, who got two hits and stole a base while continuing to recover from a sprained right ankle on Saturday night, was back in the lineup for Game 2 on Sunday, a decision that manager Dave Roberts said was “much easier” than it was on Saturday, when the team did not deem the first baseman fit to play until 2½ hours before first pitch.
The Dodgers posted a lineup with Freeman batting third four hours before first pitch on Sunday.
“I think that he is in the same spot [physically], but I do feel there’s a little more comfort for Freddie, knowing kind of where the floor is for him,” Roberts said. “Whereas [on Saturday], you’re just trying to figure out what this means and how it feels, he feels like he can get through today and manage it. So we certainly feel more confident today.”
Take that! Vengeful Dodgers roar in postseason-opening win over reeling Padres
For a first act, it was deafening madness.
For a first step, it was a dizzying leap.
For a Game 1, it was a Game 7, nine innings fought and cheered and inhaled by more than 53,000 bouncing fans as if it were the last bit of baseball on Earth.
Wait, the Dodgers are going to play more games like this?
Yes, absolutely, at least 10 more, as many as 18 more, and bring it on, more, more, more, the senses can’t get enough of what the Dodgers brought to the San Diego Padres on Saturday night in their 7-5 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers’ starting lineup for NLDS Game 2 against the Padres
Here’s the Dodgers’ starting lineup for Game 2 of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres:
Game 1 recap: Shohei Ohtani powers Dodgers past Padres
The redemption tour began just as the Dodgers imagined it.
With a momentous home-run swing from Shohei Ohtani.
One inning into their postseason opener Saturday night, the Dodgers were having nightmare flashbacks to this time last year, facing yet another early deficit after yet another poor performance from their Game 1 starting pitcher.
The 53,028 towel-waving fans at Dodger Stadium had been silenced. In the visiting dugout, the San Diego Padres were riding a sudden jolt of momentum.
Dodgers vs. Padres: How to watch and betting odds for Game 2
In the Dodgers’ 7-5 win in the opening game of the National League Division Series, Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run home run to tie the game. And six scoreless innings from the Dodgers’ bullpen kept the lead from changing.
The Dodgers continue the postseason Sunday when they face the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium. The game is scheduled to start at 5:03 p.m. PDT and will air on FS1. It will air on 570 AM and 1020 AM (Español) in the Los Angeles area.
Here are the betting odds for Game 2:
Here’s the TV schedule for the rest of best-of-five series (all times Pacific):
Tuesday: Game 3 — Dodgers at San Diego, 6:08 p.m. | FS1
*Wednesday: Game 4 — Dodgers at San Diego, 6:08 p.m. | FS1
*Friday: Game 5 — San Diego at Dodgers | 5:08 p.m. | Fox
*—if necessary