In the hours before Game 4 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park on Wednesday night, there was a quiet but palpable belief around the Dodgers dugout, one that belied the seemingly dire state in which they found themselves.
Sure, the team was facing a third straight elimination in the NLDS, down two games to one to the San Diego Padres.
And no, they were not at full strength, playing without injured veterans Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas on the same day they opted for a bullpen game from their banged-up pitching staff.
Yet, in a stark difference from the last couple of Octobers, they showed no panic. They felt no dread.
The Dodgers proved Wednesday night they have the fire required to silence the energized Padres and force a decisive Game 5 at Dodger Stadium.
“I think it was a lot more light than people would think,” right fielder Mookie Betts said. “We weren’t uptight. We were having fun, laughing, joking. We knew what we were about to do. We knew the challenge we had to face. But we all just enjoyed it … We knew we’d be OK.”
OK, indeed.
By the end of the night, that pregame optimism had blossomed into postgame celebration, with the Dodgers saving their season in an 8-0 blowout win.
“We just played our game,” utilityman Kiké Hernández said. “We did what we’re capable of doing.”
Unlike last year, when they were blanketed by Arizona Diamondbacks pitchers in a season-ending loss, the Dodgers’ lineup looked locked in from the jump, scoring three times in the first two innings against Padres starter Dylan Cease, who was pitching for the first time in his career on three days’ rest, before adding two more in the third inning to stake the bullpen to a 5-0 advantage.
Unlike 2022, when the Dodgers blew a late lead in a Game 4 elimination in this same stadium, their relievers didn’t crumble down the stretch either, calling upon eight different pitchers for the club’s first postseason shutout since the wild-card round in 2020, and first postseason road win since Game 5 of the 2021 NLDS.
“Our bullpen is special,” said left-hander Alex Vesia. “We’ve got eight, nine, 10 guys that can all come in in very high-leverage situations, and I think it shows.”
Now, this Dodgers team will live to see at least two more days, having tied the best-of-five series at two games a piece to force a decisive fifth game back at Chavez Ravine.
“When you get into the postseason, it’s a street fight,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Your desire has got to be more than your opponent. And for me to see our guys go through what they’ve been through and respond the way they have, it really makes me excited about Game 5.”
The Dodgers’ path to a Game 4 victory began in the wake of the Padres’ Game 3 win on Tuesday. In his postgame news conference that night, San Diego manager Mike Shildt announced that Cease, who started Game 1 of the series, would get the ball in Game 4 on three days’ rest.
That, to some with the Dodgers, was good news. Not just because they’d tagged Cease with five runs in less than four innings in their Game 1 triumph, but also because, for the first time in three postseasons, they’d get the chance to see the same starting pitcher twice in one series.
“Whenever someone comes back on short rest, you never know what you’re going to get,” said Max Muncy, who moved to first base to fill in for Freeman. “You just got to find a way to control the zone and just attack the pitches that are going to be over the plate.”
From the very first inning, that’s what the Dodgers did.
Just like in Game 3, Betts set the tone with a first-inning homer, connecting on a full-count fastball in the middle of the zone.
And rather than squander the early momentum like they did in Tuesday’s loss, the Dodgers relentlessly added on until the score was out of hand.
Quality second-inning at-bats from Gavin Lux (a walk) and Kiké Hernández (a two-strike single) led to RBI singles from Shohei Ohtani (who had only been one for his last 12 at that point) and Betts (who has officially snapped out of his postseason slump).
With Cease out of the game in the third, the Dodgers added two more on Will Smith’s home run, a blast to straightaway center that snapped his streak of nine hitless at-bats to start the series.
“We just kept adding on,” Hernández said. “We slugged, we rallied, went station to station… We played a great game overall.”
That assessment also applied to a lockdown bullpen, which hardly needed the breathing room with the way it silenced the Padres’ bats.
Ryan Brasier opened the game with four straight outs. Anthony Banda took over from there by stranding a pair of baserunners in the second.
Roberts got aggressive in the third, going to closer Michael Kopech even with the five-run lead.
Vesia got the most outs of anyone, pitching 1⅔ innings while stranding two more runners in the fifth.
“We all knew pretty much where we were going to go,” Vesia said. “The offense helped us out big time, getting the runs early, then keeping the pressure on them.”
The mixing and matching concluded with stress-free appearances by Evan Phillips, Daniel Hudson, Blake Treinen and Landon Knack.
In all, Dodgers pitchers held Luis Arraez, Jurickson Profar and Fernando Tatis Jr. to just one hit each, while handing Manny Machado an 0-fer with two strikeouts.
“They were all fantastic,” Smith said, after catching all nine innings. “Attacking the zone, putting guys away, putting up nine zeroes. We needed that tonight.”
Wednesday wasn’t without some adversity for the Dodgers.
Rojas, as expected, was unable to play because of his adductor injury. Freeman was initially in the starting lineup, but got scratched less than two hours before the game in a bit of “gamesmanship,” he said, as he nurses his sprained right ankle.
After having to face tough questions following a disappointing performance in the first two games of the NLDS, Mookie Betts has come alive for the Dodgers.
“[Playing on] back-to-back days, it’s a little tough,” said Freeman, who was removed early from Tuesday’s game for the second time this series. “So we just decided at breakfast that I wasn’t going to play.”
In their absence, however, Ohtani (one hit, two walks, one RBI), Betts (two hits and two RBIs) and Teoscar Hernández (two hits) delivered star-caliber performances — even when accounting for a wacky fifth-inning play when a possible RBI double from Hernández hit the arm of third-base umpire Mark Ripperger, leading to Ohtani getting thrown out at home plate.
The bottom of the batting order was equally impressive.
Kiké Hernández capitalized on his first start of the series with two hits (while also flipping between third base and center field depending on if a fly-ball or ground-ball pitcher was on the mound), making a strong case to remain in the lineup for Game 5. Lux continued his strong series with an infield single in the sixth and an insurance two-run homer in the seventh. Even Tommy Edman, who didn’t have a hit, contributed with a sacrifice bunt that scored a run.
“We grinded out some at-bats tonight and we got some runs on the board,” said Muncy, after his team went five for nine with runners in scoring position. “We stayed within ourselves … It was fun to watch.”
It was everything the Dodgers hoped would happen coming into the game; and everything they failed to produce when facing elimination the previous two years.
“We have the players and the people that can make this happen,” Teoscar Hernández said of the Dodgers’ attempt to come back in this series. “And I trust every single guy in that clubhouse.”
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