LOS ANGELES – Well, maybe this is a rivalry, after all.
The San Diego Padres, believing all season that they could play the mighty Los Angeles Dodgers, finally proved it on Wednesday night, knocking off the Dodgers with a 5-3 victory in front of a stunned sellout crowd of 53,122 at Dodger Stadium.
The National League Division Series is tied at 1 game apiece, but the next two games are in San Diego, with the Padres playing in front of their fans in a postseason game for the first time since 2006. They plan to make it the last game. weekend they will absolutely love it.
The Padres aren’t overreacting, and they know they still have to beat the Dodgers twice in the next three games, but, oh man, they can’t help it.
They can smell.
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They can feel it.
This is the last time the Padres slay the dragon at the top, the mighty Dodgers.
The Padres now have home-field advantage, they have favorite matchups with starters Blake Snell and Joe Musgrove pitching Friday and Saturday, and, oh, their bullpen is up.
The Padres’ bullpen has been clueless, throwing 9⅓ shutout innings in this series.
The Dodgers have probably won 22 more games than the Padres this season, have beaten them 15 times in their 25 contests – and are 24-6 against them in their last 30 games dating back to last year.
But the most important thing right now is that they are all tied, with the best-of-three series deciding who will go on to win the National League pennant.
“This is what it means,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “We worked hard all year to get to this point. We are here.”
Buckle up, and get ready, because this series is looking to be a doozy.
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The two teams traded punches for five innings, with the game tied at 3-1, and Dodgers three-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw and Padres ace Yu Darvish lasting five innings each.
“It was a grind,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Kershaw, “everything for him.”
Manny Machado, who was fired every time he came to the plate, tormented Kershaw single-handedly, hitting in the first inning and hitting a run-singing double into left field in the third inning.
Machado tormented the Dodgers in the field again, with two brilliant performances. He robbed Trea Turner of an extra-base hit by snaring a line drive in the first inning, then produced an encore in the fourth inning by going to his left, catching a sharp grounder, spinning around, and throwing out Turner at first.
The long ball hurt Darvish and Freddie Freeman in the first inning, Max Muncy in the second inning and Turner in the third.
The Padres took advantage of a rare error by the Dodgers to break the tie in the sixth when Turner grounded into a potential double-play groundout by Wil Myers, advancing Jake Cronenworth to second base. Left fielder Jurickson Profar made the Dodgers pay with a sharp single to right field, his fifth RBI of the postseason, for a 4-3 Padres lead.
The Padres tried their best to return the favor with second baseman Cronenworth failing to come up with Will Smith’s ground ball. Muncy followed with a single over right fielder Juan Soto. They should have been runners on second and third, but Smith got a late break, and Muncy was injured only at first.
It proved expensive.
The Padres pulled Darvish, and brought in Robert Suarez. He hit Justin Turner for the first out, and Gavin Lux followed with a double-play groundout that led off Cronenworth, preserving the Padres’ 4-3 lead.
And just like that, Darvish has as many postseason wins in one week as he has in his career, making seven starts, including his 2017 World Series loss with the Dodgers when he went 0-2 with a 21.60 ERA.
“He definitely uses that as motivation,” Padres pitching coach Ruben Niebla said.
Now, he’s stepped up to become the Padres’ ace, shutting out the New York Mets in the wildcard game last week by allowing one run in seven innings, and getting the win on Wednesday night, allowing seven hits and three runs. five innings
Darvish was 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA this season, yielding 148 hits in 194⅔ innings, and pitching at least six innings in 23 consecutive games.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Niebla said. “He’s the funniest miner I’ve ever met. He just goes down on what he thinks about. He studies harder than anyone I know. And he watches a ton of video, sometimes I have to get him.”
Darvish will return to video learning again in his next start.
Perhaps, it will be the first Game of the National League Championship Series.
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