SAN DIEGO —
Sigh. Curse. It’s happening again.
For the second time in three postseasons, the Dodgers showed up at Petco Park in San Diego on a cold October night brimming with confidence, riding high on emotion, ready for revenge.
And once again, they are leaving empty-handed.
This defeat is still not as spectacular as the one two Octobers ago, but it must be given time.
Once again, after losing Game 3 of the National League Division Series to the San Diego Padres 6-5, the Dodgers find themselves on the brink of an all-too-familiar fate.
One more loss, and they end a baseball season on the rocks.
One more defeat, and more than a billion dollars will be bloody and bruised and dragging into the winter.
One more loss, and the Dodgers will have once again suffered the worst of fates against the worst of rivals, once again crushed by a hateful little brother who is everything they are not.
Those smug, petulant, damn good San Diego Padres.
The southern rivals lead the best-of-five series two to one, with the finish possibly – probably? – happening Wednesday night in a Game 4 that will feature Padres ace Dylan Cease facing a group of Dodgers relievers trying to make up for an offense with a group of wild hitters.
Doesn’t sound promising.
“We have to win tomorrow night and then pick up the pieces for Game 5,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know what that’s going to look like.”
It couldn’t look much worse than it does now.
Dodgers hitter Gavin Lux reacts after striking out in the ninth inning to end Tuesday’s game against the Padres.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Dodgers hitter Gavin Lux reacts after striking out in the ninth inning to end Tuesday’s game against the Padres. In a third game in which the chants of “Beat Los Angeles” resounded and in which the energy of the maelstrom of the second game was breathed, the Padres added the intensity while the Dodgers gave it up.
The Padres scored six runs in the second inning against a sloppy Dodger defense and that was it. With the exception of a grand slam hit by Teoscar Hernández, the Dodgers did little to get into the fight.
They were supposed to still be furious about the way the Padres had boasted their way to a Game 2 victory that incited the Dodger Stadium fans into idiocy, right?
No. They didn’t act angry, meekly slamming six hits against five Padres relievers and going scoreless after the third inning.
They were supposed to defend Roberts’ honor after Father Manny Machado threw a baseball at him in Game 2, right?
Mistake. They were tentative from the moment starter Walker Buehler was evaluated for a pitch clock violation while facing Machado in the second inning, Buehler finally struggling like all Dodgers starters struggle, giving up allowing six runs in five innings.
“Yeah, it’s not a great situation,” Roberts said.
To add insult to shame, the Padres did not retaliate for Dodger fans showering their players with bottles and baseballs in the second game. Padres fans were, instead, the picture of strength and sportsmanship, roaring and waving yellow towels until they finally howled hoarse when Tanner Scott struck out Shohei Ohtani in the eighth inning to end the best last Dodger opportunity.
Speaking of which, Ohtani struck out twice and only managed one single in a second straight game in which he has looked very human. Despite giving up his home run in Game 1, the Padres clearly aren’t afraid of Ohtani. They fear no one.
But still, more has been expected from Superman.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani walks to the dugout after striking out in the eighth inning on Tuesday against the Padres.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“I think the moment is not going his way,” Roberts said, defending his star. “I think he’s making some good throws. He obviously had a good Game 1 and held his own somewhat…. I think he’s still in a good place. He will be ready to make a mistake.”
So the greatest player in baseball history is now an error hitter? The Dodgers’ immediate future has truly become unmanageable.
And to think the game started with a home run by – you’re not going to believe this – Mookie Betts! This was a guy who was 0 for 6 in this series and 3 for 44 in 12 playoff games, a guy who got robbed of a home run by Jurickson Profar in Game 2, a guy who thought it happened again on Tuesday when Profar he dove back into the bleachers in the left field corner.
Betts was so sure Profar had stolen another one that he headed toward the dugout before reaching second base when Profar came up empty-handed and the explosion came true.
It was the only really pleasant surprise of the night for the Dodgers. The Dodgers seemed to lose their instant mojo even before the bottom of the second inning began with that shot clock violation, and it only got worse.
Machado singled up the middle, then forced an error when he ran inside the baseline on a grounder to Freddie Freeman and Freeman’s throw to second deflected off his shoulder and into left field, setting the stage for a grounder. by Xander Bogaerts that Miguel Rojas caught but tripped trying to start a double play, allowing a run to score.
Then David Peralta doubled down the right field line to score two runs, Kyle Higashioka’s fly ball scored another run, and then Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a home run to deep left field to score six runs.
“There were balls that we didn’t convert into outs. And that increases the tension in the inning,” Roberts said, later adding: “When you give a good team extra outs it’s hard to throw zeroes.”
Trailing 6-1, the Dodgers looked defeated almost before the game began, and not even a grand slam by Hernandez in the third inning could change that.
So here the Dodgers sit again, on the precipice of massive failure, in the same place they were in 2022 when they lost this series to the Padres in four games, and almost the same place they were last season when they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“As far as kind of winning a ball game tomorrow, I think we’re in a really good place,” said the ever-optimistic Roberts.
For Dodger fans still waiting for their first full-season championship in 36 years, it has never seemed worse.
