Parity abound in MLB postseason as big spenders and budget squads collide
USA TODAY Sports’ Bob Nightengale breaks down parity in the MLB Postseason and why teams like the Padres are excelling despite cutting their budget.
Sports Seriously
SAN DIEGO — The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres didn’t swear at each other or accuse each other of immoral behavior, and the fans stayed cool.
When it was all over Tuesday night – what began as a laugher, turned into a thriller, and then a nail-biter – the Padres as the last team standing.
The Padres knocked off their neighbors to the north, 6-5, moving to within one game of reaching the National League Championship Series.
The Padres, relying on perhaps the best bullpen in the land, shut down the Dodgers for the final six innings, taking a 2-1 lead in the National League Division Series.
The Padres’ bullpen was the hero, with four relievers allowing up just one baserunner in the final four innings. The sellout crowd of 47,774 at Petco Park went bonkers when Robert Suarez struck out Gavin Lux, ending the game.
“This is what we have built,” Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar said. “This is who we are.”
The Padres looked as if they could run away with the game, exploding for six runs in the second inning, climaxed byFernando Tatis’s two-run homer into left.
Tatis stood and watched the ball land 396 feet away, flipped his bat high into the air, and slowly circled the bases while the sellout crowd roared to Del Mar, dancing up and down the aisles.
“I think that’s definitely part of their game,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said ahead of Game 3. “They play off the emotion. The atmosphere here plays off their emotion. We’ve seen that for the last several years, even in regular season games. …
“That is kind of part of their game is trying to get under your skin and trying to have the emotion come out and get you to do something that you’re not normally doing. For example, if you’re a pitcher and you see a guy doing that, all of a sudden you want to throw harder, and now you’re missing balls right over the plate. And that’s when their guys are doing the damage.
“It’s easier said than done, obviously, but you can’t let that happen.”
After that inning, the Dodgers didn’t.
Buehler, who allowed seven runners to reach base in the second, settled down, allowed just three baserunners the next three innings, and watched his team come storming back in the third inning.
The Dodgers led off the inning with three consecutive singles by Miguel Rojas, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts, and after Freddie Freeman lined out, Teoscar Hernandez temporarily silenced the boisterous crowd.
He hit a grand slam that barely cleared the center-field fence, and just like that, a potential Padres rout became a nail-biter, with a 6-1 lead melting down to 6-5.
It became a battle of the bullpens, with Buehler and Padres starter Michael King each pulled after surviving five innings.
Certainly, the game didn’t lack entertainment.
Mookie Betts, who has been in a postseason slump for the past three years, was convinced his luck was so bad that he believed Profar robbed him of another homer when he sent Michael King’s pitch over the left-field wall in his first at-bat.
Who can blame him after what happened in Game 2?
This time, he actually headed back to the Dodgers dugout and was halfway across the infield when he realized that Profar did NOT catch it this time.
Betts, who was hitting .068 (3-for-44) in his last 12 postseason games dating back to Game 4 of the 2021 NL Championship Series, later singled in the Dodgers’ four-run outburst in the third inning, hoping it would also change the Dodgers’ fate.
The Padres, after watching the Dodgers’ crowd interrupt Sunday’s game for 10 minutes throwing objects onto the field, sent out a memo to their ticket holders in the afternoon, imploring them to keep the peace.
Padres manager Mike Shildt issued the same verbal warning to the Dodgers and particularly manager Dave Roberts, telling him to basically keep Manny Machado’s name out of his mouth.
The Padres were livid when Roberts accused Machado of throwing a baseball directed towards him in between innings in Game 2, saying it was “unsettling,” while also saying the Padres embrace the “villain-type” role.
“I come from maybe just a different philosophy of dealing with this,” Shildt said. “Listen, I got into this game to help players get the most out of their God-given ability and to compete on the field and respect the opponent. I’m not, nor will I ever, disparage another player on another team, especially anybody I’ve managed in the past, nor will I do it to a collective team.
“That’s not how I want to operate. I have a lot of respect for their club, the players on their club.”
The Dodgers sent the video to MLB to see if discipline should be warranted, but MLB officials didn’t see anything worth discipline.
“Zero chance,” Shildt said, when asked if Machado threw the ball deliberately towards Roberts of anyone else in the dugout.
Really, Shildt said, it was time to play baseball and forget all of the other shenanigans.
“I don’t think it’s good for the game,” he said. “I think this game stands on its own merits. … You look at the passionate fan bases that love the teams. That’s what we’re here for. That’s what this game’s about.
“This game, just like the players, doesn’t need any defense, doesn’t need anything to heighten it, to bring any attention to it. It’s a beautiful game that’s very well run from our leadership. And the theater of this sport is plenty enough.”
Certainly, it proved just that once again Tuesday evening as the Padres answered the crowd’s pleas:
Beat LA.
Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale
Here’s how Tuesday’s game unfolded
Robert Suarez recored a four-out save to end San Diego’s 6-5 victory at Petco Park, with the Padres now just one win away from eliminating the rival Dodgers and reaching the NLCS.
Padres lefty Tanner Scott came in to start the eighth and struck out Shohei Ohtani looking before getting Mookie Betts to fly out to center. Freddie Freeman singled in a lefty-on-lefty matchup, leading Padres manager Mike Shildt to pull Scott in favor of Robert Suarez to face Dodgers slugger Teoscar Hernandez. Suarez got Hernandez to pop out in the infield to end the frame.
Padres started Michael King was removed after five innings, with Jeremiah Estrada and Jason Adam combining to get six consecutive outs and bring San Diego’s 6-5 lead into the bottom of the seventh.
Both starters settled in, with Walker Buehler throwing up three consecutive zeros after the Padres’ six-run second inning. Michael King has retired eight in a row after Teoscar Hernandez’s grand slam in the top of the third inning that cut San Diego’s lead to 6-5.
Wow. After a trainwreck of a second inning put the Dodgers in a 6-1 hole, Los Angeles came right back with Teoscar Hernández’s grand slam to dead center field off Padres starter Michael King, making it a 6-5 ballgame.
Expect the pendulum to swing a few more times in this game.
Who else? Fernando Tatis Jr. clobbered a two-run homer to left field in the bottom of the second, capping off a nightmare inning for the Dodgers and starter Walker Buehler.
It’s Tatis Jr.’s fourth homer in five games this postseason.
Walker Buehler’s second inning turned into a disaster after a leadoff single, with two fielder’s choices and a Freddie Freeman error allowing the Padres to tie the game. WIth runners on first and third, David Peralta laced a two-RBI double past Freeman down the right field line to make it 3-1.
Another single moved Peralta to third, setting up Kyle Higashioka’s sacrifice fly to bring home the Padres’ fourth run, mercifully the first out of the inning.
Mookie Betts got the party started in Game 3 with a solo home run off Padres starter Michael King in the top of the first inning – just beyond the glove of Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar.
Betts had been mired in a postseason slump, batting .068 (3 for 44) in his past 12 playoff games dating back to the 2021 NLCS.
It was almost a carbon copy of a much-discussed play from Game 2, but Profar leaped into the stands to rob Betts of a home run and took the time to celebrate in front of fans.
What time is Dodgers vs. Padres?
First pitch at Petco Park is scheduled for 9:08 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Dodgers vs Padres TV channel
- Shohei Ohtani (L) DH
- Mookie Betts (R) RF
- Freddie Freeman (L) 1B
- Teoscar Hernández (R) LF
- Max Muncy (L) 3B
- Will Smith (R) C
- Gavin Lux (L) 2B
- Tommy Edman (S) CF
- Miguel Rojas (R) SS
- Luis Arraez (L) 1B
- Fernando Tatis Jr. (R) RF
- Jurickson Profar (S) LF
- Manny Machado (R) 3B
- Jackson Merrill (L) CF
- Xander Bogaerts (R) SS
- David Peralta (L) DH
- Jake Cronenworth (L) 2B
- Kyle Higashioka (R) C
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