The San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 in Game 2 of the NLDS on Wednesday. The Padres’ win means they have evened the best-of-five series at 1-1, making it a three-game series now with the Padres on home field. This was the start to finish of the most entertaining game of the 2022 postseason to this point and one of the most entertaining baseball games to watch. There was action on top of drama on top of action.
let’s go deeper This won’t be exhaustive, because there was just too much fun.
Bombs out of time
The fun started almost immediately.
Manny Machado homered off Clayton Kershaw in the first to give the Padres a quick lead.
Freddie Freeman homered in the bottom half to tie things up. Max Muncy homered in the second to give the Dodgers the lead. After the Padres got two on in the top of the third, with a rally that included a double by Machado, Trea Turner homered to tie the game, his second long ball of the series.
In what many expected to be a low-scoring game (the total, or “over/under” was 7), the offenses combined for six runs and four home runs through the first three innings.
The action wasn’t limited to home runs or the first three innings.
The Dodgers defense gives and takes in the sixth
With one out in the sixth, Trea Turner reached on a groundout by Wil Myers. Next up was Jurickson Profar, who he gave the undeserved run.
Then, in an attempted safety squeeze, Dodgers pitcher Brusdar Graterol made a shortstop-like play to trap the runner at home. Austin Nola followed with a rocket up the middle that would have scored two runs. Instead, Cody Bellinger made an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track.
Suárez’s magic at the bottom
The action didn’t slow down. An infield single by Will Smith was followed by a Max Muncy single that put runners on first and third with no outs in the sixth for the Dodgers. The Padres removed starter Yu Darvish and traded Robert Suarez to reliever. In situations like these, giving up a single run isn’t so horrible. Pretty much the only way to realistically not allow a run would be to get bunts or a hit and a double play.
Suárez arrived with the latter. He struck out Justin Turner and then induced an inning-ending twin to kill off the bat of Gavin Lux.
At the time, it felt like the moment the Padres took complete control of the game.
Of course, they had to deal with another major threat.
Suárez also escapes in the seventh
With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Cody Bellinger singled and Mookie Betts sent a liner into the left-center gap. Padres center fielder Trent Grisham had a great effort and one could argue that he should have caught it, although it would have been a spectacular catch, but instead he missed it. Bellinger ended up on third as he had to stay at first in case Grisham caught him, so Betts’ double put the Dodgers runners on second and third with one out.
With the infield tied, Trea Turner hit a hard grounder to Manny Machado, who looked back at Bellinger before getting the runner out at first (the throw took first baseman Wil Myers off the bag and he did well to adjust -se and then avoid falling into the trap set by Turner, who dropped to the ground hoping to lure Myers into a run).
After intentionally walking Freddie Freeman, Suarez gave up a hard drive to Will Smith, but Grisham positioned himself perfectly and the threat ended.
The Padres still had six outs to go while clinging to that one-run lead.
Still, we tip our hat to Robert Suarez. The 31-year-old reliever, who spent his career playing in Mexico and Japan, hadn’t even been in Minor League baseball until 2022. He made his MLB debut with the Padres on April 7 and pitched a very good rookie year.
And he may have just recorded all six of the Padres’ big outings of the season.
Cronenworth Insurance
Maybe he felt his teammates on the mound had to sweat too much with that one-run lead, because Jake Cronenworth crushed a prodigious home run with one out in the eighth.
That’s 416 feet of breathing space. The insurance run gave the Padres a 5-3 lead.
Four save out of Hader
The drama was far from over. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Gavin Lux singled and Padres manager Bob Melvin decided to go for Josh Hader. There were only four outs left, but Hader hadn’t gone more than one inning since August 14, 2020, the date of his last four-out save.
Hader also had an atrocious pitching stretch this year. From July 4 to August 28, Hader appeared in 17 games and allowed runs in nine of them, posting a miserable 17.31 ERA over that stretch. He didn’t allow an earned run in his last 10 starts, so he may be on the mend, but there’s always the concern that his struggles will return.
Hader walked Trayce Thompson, but then got Austin Barnes to fly out to center to end the eighth. In the ninth, he got two outs before Freddie Freeman crushed a ball over the right-center wall that looked like it might be a home run off the bat, but fell for a double. Will Smith came to the plate on the tying run and flied out to deep right with a hard liner.
It wasn’t clean, but Hader held back the flashes, especially hitting Trea Turner for the second out of the ninth, where he looked like vintage Hader. It’s something to keep in mind going forward in this series.
Playoff Kershaw?
Fair or not, the topic of Clayton Kershaw “choking” in the playoffs is a favorite for many. He’s absolutely not a choke artist or anything that extreme, because he’s had a litany of great outings under immense pressure. It’s just not accurate to suggest that you somehow shrink from every great moment.
However, he has been a decent worst in his career in the playoffs and is not a lot of little sample. Entering this game, he had a career 2.48 ERA and 1.00 WHIP in the regular season compared to 4.19 and 1.07. His home run rate in the playoffs (1.3 HR/9) was nearly double that of the regular season (0.7 HR/9).
This one was a mixed bag. He struck out six without walking anyone. He also gave up three runs on six hits, including a home run and a double, in five innings. That’s a 5.40 ERA and 1.20 WHIP after he posted 2.28 and 0.94 in the regular season.
It definitely wasn’t bad and it didn’t “choke”. The Dodgers didn’t lose the game. He matched Yu Darvish allowing three runs in five innings. Nor was he good enough to silence the naysayers. The narrative lives to fight another day. It is persistent.
Next: Game 3 Friday
After an off day on Thursday, this series moves to Petco Park in San Diego for Game 3 on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 8:37 PM ET.
The Padres will start lefty Blake Snell. He looked like his old Cy Young self down the stretch, posting a 2.19 ERA (2.23 FIP) over his last 14 starts while striking out 105 in 78 innings in that span. He was bad last time out, though, against the Mets in the Wild Cards series, walking six and giving up a home run in 3 1/3 innings. He threw five scoreless the last time he saw the Dodgers, but he was bombed by them the time before.
The Dodgers will start righty Tony Gonsolin (16-1, 2.14). He was actually worse on the road this season, but it was still a brilliant 2.66 ERA. He faced the Padres just once and gave up just one run in seven innings of work. It could be a short outing, though, as Gonsolin missed all of September with a forearm injury. He had a two-inning shutout on Oct. 3 in which he threw 40 pitches.