LOS ANGELES — Everything you needed to know about how hugely important Game 2 of this National League divisional series was for San Diego, how important that 5-3 decision against Los Angeles was to win, came with two outs and one on -In the end of the eighth inning. At that moment, Padre’s manager Bob Melvin resolutely walked to the mound and waved to his closer, Josh Hader.
Melvin asked Hader to score four outs to preserve the Padres’ lead, game and, most likely, the season. Hader hadn’t been asked that much in over a year. The last time he worked more than an inning for a save was on October 1, 2020.
And everything you needed to know about how things got out of hand that night came as you watched Hader trundle in from the right field bullpen at Dodger Stadium. His path took him right past a goose that had landed in shallow right field a arc or two earlier and decided to stay put.
The tension created a terrific playoff mood. After the Padres managed to hold out what a series this could be.
“Probably as back and forth a game as you’ll see,” Melvin said. “A lot of drama. fun gain.”
The Padres and the Dodgers traded haymakers early on. Manny Machado, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Trea Turner all scored before the end of the third inning.
The teams then traded skillful defensive plays mid-game. Mookie Betts elicited a leadoff walk from Yu Darvish to start the fifth in a 3-3 tie, then set sail for second base. The Dodgers’ stolen baseline win rate for the season at that point was 85 percent. Darvish isn’t known for getting to the plate quickly, but he sped things up, catcher Austin Nola fired a punch at second baseman Jake Cronenworth and the Padres obliterated Betts on a steal attempt.
“There are so many things that have to be right in a piece like this,” Nola said. “You have to get a good pitch. The jug has to be on the plate quickly. You need to get a good label. Hopefully Mookie doesn’t get a good jump.
“It was a beautiful baseball game all round.”
Melvin called it Nola’s “best litter of the year”. And it came at the perfect time.
Though Turner muffed a ground ball in the top of the sixth, the Padres, who were 4-3 up, missed a chance to open the game when Dodgers relive Brusdar Graterol pounced on a possible safety squeeze bunt and threw home Nagel Cronenworth. Then Cody Bellinger made a blinding catch in deep midfield to end the inning and strand two Padres baserunners.
The Dodgers went on two at the end of the inning without going out. But Robert Suarez emerged from the Padres’ bullpen and hit Justin Turner with a 101-mph fastball. Cronenworth and shortstop Ha-Seong Kim then turned a skillful double-header on Gavin Lux’s bouncer to end the threat.
“The game of the game,” Melvin said.
Poetic, too, in that it was Lux who caught Wil Myers’ tough bouncer the night before — also in the sixth inning — to start what the Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts called the double game the most important game of game 1 designated.
As Machado, who had a homer, a double and two RBI, put it, “Fastest with 27 outs and trying to get as many runs down the line as we can to help our team win and as fast to get to our bullpen as possible.”
Enter strife.
He initially struggled after the Padres took him over from Milwaukee at the close of business on August 2. Things got so bad that Melvin removed him from the role of closer to give him time to regroup and work on some resolutions with the team’s pitching coach, Ruben Niebla. In recent weeks, he’s often looked like the four-time All-Star that he is.
“We kept his workload to a minimum during the regular season,” Melvin said of Hader’s early arrival. “He saved things like that for the postseason. He was for it. He knew any runner-on and two-out would come in for four outs and he did what we expected him to do.”
To be honest, even though the Dodgers had won 15 of their last 20 against the Padres and 24 of 29 through late August 2021, the Padres didn’t panic after losing Game 1. Instead, the Padres said that once they believed they got through that game, the pitching matchups would favor them for the rest of the series.
Roberts late Wednesday named right-hander Tony Gonsolin to start Friday’s Game 3 in San Diego. Gonsolin has pitched just two innings since Aug. 23 while recovering from a right forearm strain. The Padres will counter with left-hander Blake Snell, who was on track for success up until his start in Game 2 in the wildcard series against the Mets.
Now the question is, has the road gotten a little uphill ahead of the 111-win Dodgers heading toward San Diego? The Padres are playing well, their bullpen has been outstanding (so far, the Dodgers are 4-32 against six San Diego relievers), and they were fifth in the majors this year with an average attendance of 36,931.
They haven’t hosted a postseason game at home at Petco Park since 2006, and the atmosphere Friday night for Game 3 is expected to be electric.
“They’ve been waiting for this for a while and have been supporting us throughout the year,” Melvin said. “It seems like every game we have between 35,000 and 40,000 people there. The drama that happened during the season, I think we had 10, 12 walkoffs or something and they were a big part of that.
As for the Goose, it stayed in flat right field for a shot with Padres reserve Nick Martinez on the mound before the ground team caught the bird during the pitching change as Hader warmed up. The first attempt failed as the goose flew to the Dodgers’ dugout. It veered left, causing Bellinger to crouch in a circle on deck. Eventually the goose was caught and removed from the field for its safety.
“That was pretty gnarly out there, huh?” said Machado. “He didn’t want to go anywhere. I think he was injured when he landed, so I kind of didn’t like that. I think it was lucky for us.”