Machado’s homer helps Padres even NL series
Not many tabbed the San Diego Padres to beat the Mets in New York in the wild-card round. Even fewer picked them against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have dominated the Padres in recent years and were baseball's best team during the regular season.
But they're all even now. Manny Machado homered early and added an RBI double off Clayton Kershaw, and Jurickson Profar singled home the go-ahead run as San Diego defeated the Dodgers 5-3 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium to tie their National League Division Series at one game apiece.
“We're going to compete,” Machado said. “We're going to try to do everything possible to help our team win every single day. That's what we started in New York, and we're going to continue to do that until we're not.”
The wild-card Padres beat the rival Dodgers for the first time in the postseason. San Diego was swept 3-0 by the Dodgers in a 2020 division series and lost Game 1 of this playoff Tuesday.
“It's probably as back and forth a game as you are going to see,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “A lot of drama to it. Fun win.”
Dropped from first to seventh in the batting order for matchup purposes, Profar grounded a single to right field in the sixth inning off reliever Brusdar Graterol, who took the loss. Jake Cronenworth scored for a 4-3 lead.
Cronenworth homered off Blake Treinen in the eighth to give San Diego some insurance, and Josh Hader earned his first four-out save since August 2020 with the Milwaukee Brewers.
“This team all year, we've been grinding,” Machado said.
Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Trea Turner went deep for the NL West champion Dodgers.
After an off day Thursday, the bestof-five series resumes with Game 3 on Friday in San Diego.
Braves 3, Phillies 0: After swinging through a 95 mph fastball for strike three to end the eighth inning, Kyle Schwarber went back to the Philadelphia dugout in an 0-for-16 postseason slump. He wasn't the only Phillies hitter who came up empty Wednesday.
One night after scoring seven runs on 12 hits, the Phillies and their big bats went quiet in a 3-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves that evened their best-of-five NL Division Series at a game apiece.
Schwarber, who led the NL with 46 home runs this season, struck out three times and finished 0 for 4.
“For me, you've got to be able to put the ball in play,” he said. “I'm the guy at the top of the lineup. I've got to be able to get on base for these guys. I don't feel bad or anything up at the plate, so I just have to make the adjustments and go from there. Put in a good day's work and then be ready to go on Friday.”
Schwarber isn't alone in his struggles. Rhys Hoskins, who bats No. 2 in the lineup behind Schwarber, is 1 for 18 in the playoffs and went 0 for 4 in Game 2. Nick Castellanos was 0 for 3 after driving in three runs with three hits in Game 1.
Yankees, Guardians rained out: The second game of the American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and Cleveland Guardians was postponed because of rain in the forecast Thursday and rescheduled for Noon Friday.