SAN DIEGO – There was a lot of noise between Game 2 and Game 3 of the NLDS. The Dodgers felt disrespected after some verbal fights and a highly scrutinized pitch by Manny Machado. The Padres felt disrespected after Fernando Tatis Jr. was hit by Jack Flaherty. which leads to a lot of screeching.
There is no love lost between these two teams. That energy and intensity created a lot of tension leading up to Game 3, tension that permeated a packed Petco Park on Tuesday. Before the first pitch, you could feel the building shaking with anticipation.
But the Padres are not afraid of the Dodgers. They’re not afraid of Los Angeles’ vaunted lineup and, as they showed in Game 2, they’re not afraid of Dodger Stadium either. They know they can beat the Dodgers in October because they’ve done it before. And once the series returned to San Diego soil, the Padres were ready to let their play do the talking.
“There’s definitely no fear,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said of his team’s mentality. “But that’s something you build over the years, getting experience playing against those guys.”
For a microcosm of who this Padres team is, look no further than the second inning of Game 3, which put the Dodgers on the brink of another elimination in early October with a 6-5 victory.
After losing Game 2 by a score of 10-2, Los Angeles needed to strike first on Tuesday, and they did, finally getting a boost from Mookie Betts, who snapped an 0-22 hitless streak in the postseason with a home run. solo that gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
But San Diego’s lineup was relentless in the second against Dodgers starter Walker Buehler and the Dodgers defense. Manny Machado led off the inning with a single. Jackson Merrill followed with a grounder to Freddie Freeman that the first baseman would usually turn into at least a force out, maybe even a double play. But this was not the Dodgers’ night.
Instead, the former Gold Glove winner threw the ball to left field, allowing Machado to reach third, putting Merrill on first and setting the table for a monster inning for San Diego. Giving a team extra outs is never a recipe for success, and for a team with as much momentum as these Padres, that was just the little room they needed to turn the game around and take control of the series.
Things got worse for Los Angeles on the next play, when Miguel Rojas fielded a slow helicopter from Machado trotted home to score the Padres’ first run before an out was recorded in the inning.
The next batter, David Peralta, made Los Angeles pay for defensive errors, hitting a two-run double down the right field line and unleashing a sellout crowd at Petco Park.
“We’re good, man,” Peralta, a 37-year-old veteran who signed a minor league contract with San Diego in May, said afterward. “The first day I walked into the clubhouse… they just welcomed me. It’s just a great group of guys, you know? We are all together. It’s like a brotherhood.”
What seemed like a celebration for San Diego was quickly turning into a disaster for Los Angeles.
“There were balls we just didn’t turn into outs,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “And it increases the stress at the entrance.”
The Padres continued their attack after Peralta’s double, adding a run on Kyle Higashioka’s sacrifice fly after Jake Cronenworth’s single. Then, the Dodgers’ failure to convert batted balls into outs, particularly against the bottom of the Padres order, meant the lineup flipped, bringing to the plate a man who does not disappoint this time of year.
As he has been doing all postseason, Tatis brought the city of San Diego to its feet with one hit. And when he blasted a no-doubt, two-run shot from the front of the second deck, giving San Diego a 6-1 lead, one thing was clear: This Padres team will not be denied.
“I just passed out,” Tatis said later. “I feed off that kind of energy. When the fans come, (you have) meaningful games, you leave everything you have out there. I feel like I take it to another level: my way of thinking, my body, everything is through the roof.”
Tatis’ home run dominance continued his dominance against the Dodgers (.264/.326/.544 with 19 career home runs) and in the postseason. He now has a surprising 1.969 OPS this October, with a .556 average and four home runs, three of them in this series.
Not even a reaction from the Dodgers in the next inning could stop the runaway train that is the Padres. A grand slam by Teoscar Hernández after three consecutive singles opened the door to a comeback, but the San Diego bullpen slammed it shut. Padres starter Michael King went through five innings of work, and then the electric quartet of Jeremiah Estrada, Jason Adam, Tanner Scott and Robert Suarez combined for four shutout innings, allowing just one hit to seal the Padres’ victory. local team and prepare for a The fourth game that could define the series on Wednesday.
But let’s be clear: To say that all the talk before Game 3 fired up this Padres team would overlook the fact that they didn’t really need a boost. San Diego had the best record in baseball after the All-Star break, and after sweeping the Braves in the wild card round and taking firm control of this NLDS, with a chance to send the Dodgers home, they look like the best team. in baseball.
When you compare the Dodgers and the Padres, the key difference is not the caliber of the players or the atmosphere in the stadium; It’s the mentality in the clubhouse. Since Game 1, the Dodgers have had all the pressure on them. Their victory in the first contest of this series was more of a sigh of relief than a victory.
San Diego, on the other hand, has been playing carefree in these playoffs, seemingly with no regard for tomorrow. The Padres play every game as if it were their last and that is why they are the most dangerous team left on the field.
“I really appreciate this group, the way they compete, the way they carry themselves,” manager Mike Shildt said. “Proud of this group. Love them.”
