SAN DIEGO — Three days ago, as debris littered Dodger Stadium’s right field during a lengthy delay, Yu Darvish lowered himself into a deep squat at the back of the mound. Then, he stayed that way for several minutes, seemingly impassive amid a cauldron of emotion.
It might have been good practice. Soon, on that same mound, the right-hander will attempt to serve as a backstop against a season’s conclusion.
The San Diego Padres, after Wednesday’s 8-0 drubbing by the Los Angeles Dodgers, will turn to Darvish on Friday in a winner-take-all Game 5. The result of this National League Division Series could very well hinge on San Diego’s most veteran pitcher, as he returns to the site of both recent success and career-worst failure. There is plenty of room for vacillation.
The past two games at Petco Park showed as much.
Tuesday, the Padres rode a six-run outburst, a shutdown bullpen and the energy of their home stadium’s latest record-breaking crowd to a rousing victory. Hours later, they returned to the building with a palpable sense of momentum and a certain mentality.
They were one win from advancing to the National League Championship Series.
“No one was prepared to go back to L.A.,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “And I think that’s a really good mindset that we had coming into today.”
Mindset and execution, of course, do not always align.
For the Padres, right-hander Dylan Cease started on short rest for the first time in his career. It was a debatable decision. But, with Joe Musgrove headed for Tommy John surgery and Martín Pérez perhaps better suited for long relief, it was deemed the best choice available to manager Mike Shildt.
Reason for at least some debate soon re-emerged. For the third time in three career playoff starts, Cease submitted a dud. He faced only 10 batters before Shohei Ohtani cranked an RBI single and Shildt made a change. The Padres would have to resort, earlier than they hoped, to a bullpen game.
By then, the opposing bullpen already was pitching precisely according to plan. Eight Dodgers relievers went on to hold a dangerous offense to seven hits and two walks, all of it scattered traffic. The Padres, meanwhile, saw their scoreless streak stretch to 15 innings as Tuesday’s six-run eruption began to fade.
“We stuck to our approach. It was just they made good pitches the whole time,” center fielder Jackson Merrill said. “They don’t really give in, they don’t give us too much to hit. When we did get those, we missed them. And that’s what happens sometimes. It’s baseball.”
“I felt like we had to grind for our pitches,” Bogaerts said. “They came in with that reliever mindset, you know, just trying to pitch to the edge and until they needed to come into the zone. And they executed perfectly. All of them.”
Los Angeles’ bevy of arms, combined with an explosive offense, produced a certain effect.
Since the start of the month, postseason baseball at Petco Park had drawn attendance records in succession — 47,647 on Oct. 1; 47,705 on Oct. 2; 47,744 on Tuesday — each new benchmark coinciding with a raucous win. Then, on Wednesday, Cease fired a 99.6 mph fastball with his first pitch. It was his hardest throw since his July 25 no-hitter. As Ohtani fouled it off, an announced crowd of 47,773 cheered. Moments later, when the threatening slugger grounded out, almost everyone roared.
The next batter, Mookie Betts, demolished a 98.7 mph heater over the plate. The ball sailed over the center-field wall, quieting the noise. The crowd never mustered much organic excitement after that. A listless offense was the main culprit. The start of the game didn’t help, either.
“I liked the way the ball was coming out of my hand,” Cease said. “I really didn’t feel like I shot myself in the foot too much, which I feel like I had been doing.”
In the pitcher’s regular-season finale, on Sept. 25, Cease surrendered three runs over five innings at Dodger Stadium as the Padres’ hopes of capturing a division title finally began to dissolve. More than a week later, Cease retook the Dodger Stadium mound in Game 1 of the current division series. He yielded five runs over just 3 1/3 innings as the Padres fell into an early hole.
The next night, they surged back on the strength of their bats, an emotional late-game gathering and the pitching of Darvish.
On the same mound where he had once pitched abysmally in the seventh game of a World Series, Darvish held the Dodgers to three hits and one run. He endured a 10-minute delay before the bottom of the seventh — an attempt, Bogaerts later suggested, by the home fans to ice Darvish from the game. When play finally resumed, he issued a leadoff walk. He retired the next three batters to continue what has been an impressive comeback from a lengthy, in-season absence.
And, as Darvish strode off the field after a superb outing, he pounded his glove in celebration.
The Padres will need that version of the 38-year-old on Friday, with their season on the line. They have no choice but to believe they will get it.
“He’s one of the best pitchers of this generation,” Shildt said. “That’s why the confidence is high for me.”
“I feel like he’s already proved himself,” right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “He has proven himself for the last 18 years, probably.”
“I think he’s ready,” third baseman Manny Machado said. “He has the experience to go out there and compete, and he’s gonna go out there and leave it on the field for us.”
In the aftermath of a sobering defeat, duffel bags and suitcases lay strewn across the floor of Petco Park’s home clubhouse. The Padres will work out Thursday at Dodger Stadium, where Darvish will address the media ahead of Friday’s start.
It could be his, and his team’s, final game of the season. There is no guarantee they will return to the friendly, if boisterous, confines of Petco Park.
“I don’t think we should think about that at all,” Bogaerts said. “Don’t put any added pressure, any added stress, any added worry. No. Just show up and play for each other. I mean, big situation with Joe — you know, Joe is hurt and put his arm on the line for us. So it sucks that he can’t help the boys out, but if we ain’t playing for ourselves, play at least for him. We’re looking forward to it.”
The Padres may no longer have as much palpable momentum, but they will return north with Darvish on the mound and a certain mentality in mind.
“I’m ready to play the same baseball game I’ve been playing all year. There’s no reason to change it,” Merrill said. “I don’t care if we’re down to our last life. They’re down to their last life, too. You know, play with competitiveness and play with aggression. Whatever happens in the end, happens.”
(Photo of Darvish: Harry How / Getty Images)
