LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the San Diego Padres in Game 1 of the National League Division Series 7-5. The Padres had the momentum, coming off a convincing series win against the Braves and jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Dodgers had a week off, which always comes with a risk of getting rusty, and they went down quietly against Dylan Cease in the bottom half of the first. The narratives wrote themselves.
Then Shohei Ohtani happened. It’s easy to make too much of Ohtani’s two-out, three-run homer to tie the game in the bottom of the second inning, but it’s riskier to make too little of it. It was an absolute bolt that woke everyone up, and while the Padres would retake the lead in the top half of the next inning, it was the game’s signature moment.
While Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was as shaky as he’s been since his Opening Day start, allowing all five of the Padres runs, the Dodgers’ bullpen was nearly perfect, throwing six scoreless innings.
Game 2 is scheduled for 8:03 p.m. ET at Dodger Stadium, with Jack Flaherty going for the Dodgers and Yu Darvish starting for the Padres.
Dylan Cease’s fastball has always played at the top of the zone. He’d only allowed 12 home runs in his career off that pitch, in that location.
One of them? https://t.co/IkeTr2HIwl pic.twitter.com/AbyMBD5TYt
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) October 6, 2024
Shohei Ohtani sparks something in the Dodgers
Hours before the biggest game in his Major League Baseball career, Ohtani was asked if he was nervous. Will Ireton, Ohtani’s interpreter, began to relay the question before Ohtani interrupted in clear English.
“Nope,” Ohtani said, shaking his head.
He didn’t look like it on Saturday.
The Dodgers have messaged for weeks that they do not want this postseason to live and die on Ohtani’s shoulders, imparting to their designated hitter to avoid trying too much to generate action.
Ohtani did so anyway. The Dodgers fell into a 3-0 deficit before they could take their first turn at-bat. When Ohtani came up, he swung just late at an elevated fastball from Dylan Cease, flying softly to left field. The next time up, representing the tying run, Cease delivered another 97 mph fastball at the top of the zone. Ohtani unleashed, scorching a ball into the seats for a game-tying blast.
If the Dodgers go anywhere this October, it will be because of their bats. Ohtani’s swing unlocked them. Freddie Freeman gutted out a three-hit performance and stole a base on a badly sprained ankle. Gavin Lux collected a pair of hits. Teoscar Hernández came through with yet another two-out run batted in when his two-run single dipped under Jackson Merrill’s glove in center field. Through at least one test, the bats showed fight. — Fabian Ardaya
Intentional walk costs Padres
With two on, one out and the Padres leading by a run in the bottom of the fourth, manager Mike Shildt ordered an intentional walk of Mookie Betts to bring the lefty-swinging (and ailing) Freeman to the plate against left-hander Adrian Morejon. It might have seemed like an obvious move — and Morejon had just thrown a wild pitch to allow a run to score — except the count to Betts was 2-2.
The gamble didn’t work. Freeman proceeded to nearly drive in a run on a ground ball; an impressive, cross-body throw home by Padres first baseman Donovan Solano prevented the tying run from scoring. Moments later, after Jeremiah Estrada replaced Morejon on the mound, Hernández singled to center field, the ball deflected off Merrill’s glove, Ohtani scored the tying run and Betts scored behind him, for the go-ahead run.
Saturday wasn’t the first time Shildt opted for an intentional walk with two strikes. On Sept. 17, with a runner on third and one out in a tie game, reliever Jason Adam had a full count against Houston’s Kyle Tucker. Shildt decided to put Tucker on first base, later pointing to Tucker’s propensity for putting the ball in play. The Astros ended up scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Adam. The Padres re-tied the game but eventually lost in extras.
Less than three weeks later, a similarly interesting decision did not pan out for the Padres. — Dennis Lin
A familiar start for Dodgers
The haunting scene Saturday night felt familiar. Be it in March, when Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowed five runs in one inning in his Major League Baseball debut in Seoul, South Korea. Or be it 364 days ago in this very same ballpark, when Clayton Kershaw could only record one out as the Arizona Diamondbacks jumped on the Dodgers for six runs in the first inning of Game 1 of the NLDS.
That Kershaw start was the first of what is now a four-game stretch of postseason starts in which Dodgers pitchers have allowed 18 runs over 7 2/3 innings. For as much of a concern as the Dodgers’ pitching already was entering this series, Yamamoto’s start represented a disaster scenario.
Despite being more willing to throw his slider — the pitch that fueled the best start of his career at Yankee Stadium in June, a game immediately followed by his trip to the injured list – Yamamoto’s command eluded him. The Padres continued to feast on him, bringing their total to 13 runs against Yamamoto in his nine innings against them in three starts.
The Dodgers reshuffled their pitching plans this week largely to accommodate Yamamoto’s schedule. The $325 million man has not pitched on regular rest all year, meaning the only way they’d be able to have him pitch twice this series would be to pitch him in Game 1. Now he’s taken the club’s already precarious pitching plans and thrown a giant wrench in them. — Ardaya
(Photo of Shohei Ohtani: Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
