ON BRINK OF ELIMINATION
Fernando Tatis Jr. reacts after Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers robbed him of a go-ahead tworun home run in Game 2 of the best-of-five National League Division Series at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Wednesday. The Padres lost 6-5 and are down 2-0 in the series. They will try to avoid elimination tonight.
ARLINGTON, Texas In any other circumstance the Padres found themselves the previous decade, they could have walked away from Wednesday night’s loss to the Dodgers feeling a sense of accomplishment.
They battled back. They came close.
They’re too good for that now. They have accomplished too much this season. They are in the playoffs.
And now they are one loss from their offseason after Joe Kelly got Eric Hosmer to ground to second base for the final out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning Wednesday night.
A 6-5 loss to the Dodgers in Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field has the sixth postseason appearance in Padres history down to its final gasp.
And so, for all the winning streaks and grand slams and that comeback last week that sent a city into a tizzy and gave substance to the success of a franchise’s building process, the Padres’ greatest feat must be accomplished over the next three days.
Or else the same place Slam Diego was born might be where it breathes its last
breath.
Early Wednesday evening, Machado said, “It’s a must-win game for us.” Not quite.
But almost. Teams with 2-0 leads in best-of-five postseason series have gone on to win more than 91 percent of those series. (Among the 10 teams to have come back from two games down was the Padres in the 1984 NL Championship Series.)
Machado was at the center of an emotionally charged comeback and Padres’ attempt to take the lead late in the game.
In the ballpark where the Padres hit two grand slams in two games in August to start the streak that turned into a sensation known as Slam Diego, Machado and Hosmer hit back-to-back homers in the sixth inning.
That cut a 4-1 Dodgers’ lead to 4-3, as the two veterans in the heart of their order made some noise that had for them been rare in these playoffs.
Leading off the sixth, Machado reached below the strike zone to line a slider into the seats beyond left field. Before beginning his run toward first base, he turned back to the Padres dugout along the third-base line and chucked his bat.
There is a shorthand, in text parlance, for what Machado screamed as his bat sailed. It is LFG. He hardly stopped yelling at least the first and third word (Lets … go) as he made his way around the bases.
Hosmer took the admonition to heart, launching a 1-2 fastball to the Dodgers’ bullpen beyond the wall in right-center field.
Machado and Hosmer were a combined 4-for-38 before those blasts.
It was back-to-back home runs by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Machado in Game 2 of last week’s Wild Card Series against the St. Louis Cardinals that ignited the Padres’ comeback after losing the first game and trailing in the second. Those sixth-inning homers were followed by three more as the Padres evened the series that night and won it the next day.
And for a few moments Wednesday, it seemed the Padres might follow a similar script.
With two outs and a runner on second base in the seventh inning, Tatis sent a 99 mph fastball from Brusdar Graterol to straightaway center field that was just far enough and just long enough to clear the wall — if, after a long, twisting, circuitous route, Cody Bellinger had not leaped to catch the ball.
Graterol threw his glove in celebration, to which Machado, who was on deck, took offense and let Graterol know. The Dodgers pitcher responded by blowing a kiss toward Machado.
Machado crossed the third-base line and cursed back toward Graterol as other Dodgers joined in telling Machado to get off the field.
The Dodgers promptly extended their lead back to three runs by scoring twice on a walk and single against Pierce Johnson and a double steal, sacrifice f ly and single against Drew Pomeranz in the bottom of the seventh.
Down 6-3, the Padres were retired in order in the eighth by Graterol before scoring two runs off Kenley Jansen in the ninth.
Jake Cronenworth reached on an infield single with one out and scored on pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland’s double. Austin Nola popped out behind the plate before Trent Grisham lined a full-count single to rightcenter field to make it a onerun game and drive Jansen from the game.
Kelly came in and walked Tatis and Machado before getting Hosmer.
For all that, however, Zach Davies’ dubious achievement Wednesday night explains much of the Padres’ plight.
The right-hander became the first Padres starter to get more than seven outs in five postseason games when he bobbed and weaved through five innings against the Dodgers.
Hardly any team could be expected to win a postseason series when its top two starters are out, as is the Padres’ circumstance with Dinelson Lamet (biceps/elbow) inactive for both series and Mike Clevinger deactivated after throwing one inning Tuesday.
With its next two starters (Davies and Chris Paddack) allowing four runs in 41⁄
3 combined innings, it is only because of their bullpen’s fortitude that the Padres got this far.
Davies, who lost both starts against the Dodgers in the regular season despite allowing two runs in seven innings on Aug. 12 and three runs in six innings on Sept. 15, did some battling on Wednesday.
He was deluged with hard hits all over Globe Life Field’s expansive artificial turf.
Aside from the Dodgers’ nine hits, they made five outs on balls they stung at 100 mph or greater.
Davies didn’t allow more than three earned runs in a game this season. The time he allowed four runs, none were earned.
But for the second time in his two playoff starts, he allowed three runs in either the second or third inning. This time it was the third. A.J. Pollock and Austin Barnes began the inning with singles, and after Machado dived toward the line to grab Mookie Betts’ line drive for the first out, Corey Seager’s double drove in two runs to make it 2-1.
Max Muncy’s two-out single to center field scored Seager for the third run of the inning before Grisham chased down Will Smith’s drive to the wall in right-center field to end the inning.
Bellinger launched Davies’ first pitch in the fourth inning over the center-field wall.
For the second night in a row, the Padres took a 1-0 lead. In this instance it happened when Wil Myers followed Tommy Pham’s single with an RBI double.
The Padres would get just two other hits, both singles, against Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw before the sixth-inning homers.