Padres, now clicking, tie up NLDS: 'We all believe'

LOS ANGELES -- The San Diego Padres navigated done astir of this regular play arsenic an enigma. The endowment connected their roster often did not lucifer up with the prime of their play. Encouraging stretches typically followed mediocre ones. High expectations were usually tempered quickly. Along the way, though, they seemed to find spot successful a singular thought: that they had yet to scope their ceiling and frankincense their champion shot was inactive successful beforehand of them.

It has seemingly shown up astatine the astir important juncture.

The Padres, the No. 5 effect successful the National League, person begun these playoffs by winning 3 of 5 roadworthy games against 2 teams that combined for 212 wins during the regular season. They took 2 of 3 against the New York Mets astatine Citi Field implicit the weekend, stunning them successful the wild-card round, and they person present divided the archetypal 2 games of their part bid against a Los Angeles Dodgers squad that dominated them implicit the erstwhile six months. The Padres' latest victory, by a 5-3 people astatine Dodger Stadium connected Wednesday night, saw them show stellar defense, drawstring unneurotic timely hits and unopen down baseball's champion discourtesy successful the precocious innings.

Now the Padres volition instrumentality location to Petco Park for the archetypal postseason location games successful San Diego -- with fans successful attendance -- since 2006.

Suddenly a way toward defeating the mighty Dodgers seems precise clear.

"Ultimately, I deliberation we each judge successful each other," Padres 3rd baseman Manny Machado said. "We believed successful each different each year. We've been doing it each twelvemonth arsenic well. It's conscionable clicking for america present arsenic a group. It's conscionable a substance of wanting it. We privation to get to the World Series; we privation to bring a title to San Diego. Ultimately the radical is conscionable getting unneurotic and conscionable grinding this out."

The Padres dropped Game 1 connected Tuesday, but they fought. They fell down by 5 runs early, chopped their shortage to 2 successful the mediate and kept it adjacent late. That, Wil Myers believes, "carried over" into Game 2.

It began successful the precise archetypal inning, erstwhile Machado lined a hanging slider from Clayton Kershaw implicit the left-field obstruction for a location run. The Dodgers answered with solo homers by Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy, and the Padres came backmost with 3 consecutive hits that produced 2 further runs successful the apical of the third. The Dodgers tied it with different solo homer successful the bottommost fractional -- this 1 by Trea Turner -- and the Padres regained the pb connected an RBI azygous from Jurickson Profar successful the sixth. The Dodgers threatened thereafter, but Jake Cronenworth provided a large security tally by homering disconnected Blake Treinen successful the eighth.

When Mookie Betts led disconnected the 5th with a walk, Padres catcher Austin Nola gunned him down connected an attempted bargain with a cleanable throw. When Turner followed with a 103 mph slug to the near side, Machado corralled it with a slick play. And erstwhile the Dodgers enactment the archetypal 2 runners connected successful the bottommost of the sixth against a tiring Yu Darvish, Robert Suarez came retired of the bullpen and unopen them down, striking retired Justin Turner and getting Gavin Lux to bounce into an inning-ending treble play.

"We had ups and downs successful the season," Padres close fielder Juan Soto said, "but we each cognize that we person a large squad and we tin bash a batch of damage."

Leading up to Suarez's arrival, Soto turned successful 1 of the night's astir important plays. With 1 connected and nary retired successful the sixth, Muncy deed a heavy thrust to close that caromed disconnected the fence. Soto concisely changeable his mitt into the aerial pretending helium would settee successful for a regular catch, creating conscionable capable uncertainty for Muncy and the pb runner, Will Smith, to clasp up, preventing a tally from scoring and preserving what became a important treble play.

"The deke got him," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Muncy. "I deliberation astatine that constituent successful clip helium sold it good capable that Max slowed up and ended up astatine archetypal base."

The Dodgers turned successful coagulated defence successful their ain right, peculiarly successful the sixth, erstwhile Brusdar Graterol made a slick barehand play astatine location and Cody Bellinger spun doubly to way down a heavy alert shot to center. But Turner's mistake earlier that inning helped nutrient a run, and the Padres yet made the Dodgers wage for it. It's what bully teams do.

"During the play we played a batch of adjacent games similar that," Profar said, "and it seemed similar we were ever losing those games."

But the Padres are operating similar a antithetic squad now, and it's showing against the hostile that has fixed them the astir trouble. The Dodgers, the part rivals they're perpetually chasing, won their past 9 regular-season games against the Padres successful 2021 and 14 of 19 successful 2022, scoring much than doubly arsenic galore runs against them this year. Their pairing successful this circular represented the largest borderline successful run-differential betwixt 2 teams successful postseason history.

But each that matters is who tin triumph 2 of the adjacent three, and the Padres mightiness abruptly person the advantage. The adjacent 2 games volition instrumentality spot astatine their place. Starting Games 3 and 4, respectively, volition beryllium Blake Snell, who has historically pitched good against the Dodgers, and Joe Musgrove, coming disconnected a ascendant outing against the Mets connected Sunday. The Dodgers, meanwhile, person reached the uncertain information of their rotation, with Tony Gonsolin, who hasn't pitched much than 2 innings since Aug. 23, getting the shot successful Game 3. His commencement volition germinate into a bullpen game.

"During the season, they bushed us," Profar said of the 111-win Dodgers, who finished 22 games up of the Padres successful the NL West. "They bushed us. But we played beauteous bully games during the season. We mislaid them, and we cognize that if we play our bully marque of baseball, we tin bushed 'em."