FREEWAY ROBBERY
FRIARS SHOW THEIR GRIT, GUMPTION IN COMEBACK
This was the moment the Padres waited for to measure and test themselves, when cornered and wounded and gasping for postseason air.
They were good, but were they Dodger good? They bashed baseballs all season, but could they barrel it up when it counted? They grabbed the country’s attention, but would they shrivel when the spotlight shined brightest?
The Dodgers kept tossing nails under the tires as the Padres trucked toward traction, holding off an absolutely electric comeback effort still in doubt to the final out in a 6-5 roller coaster Wednesday in Game 2 of the NL Division Series.
The see-saw win gave the Dodgers a commanding lead likely to prove fatal to the upstart, arm-weary Padres. They showed though, despite an 0-2 hole in the first-to-three series against baseball’s best team, that the pilot light to push the Dodgers now and beyond remains lit.
“I love discovering what we’re made of,” Padres manager Jayce Tingler said a few hours before first pitch.
What they’re made of, we were thrillingly reminded, is a potent mix of grit and gumption.
When the TV broadcast flashed the staggering stat that Kershaw owned a 172-2 career record with at least four runs of support, the math muted the possibility of a comeback — even for the team that led baseball in those with 22 during the regular season.
This was over, right? Then the Padres roared back — not once, but twice.
A 1-0 lead on Wil Myers’ RBI double in the second inning unraveled during the
Dodgers second lap through the lineup against starter Zach Davies. A.J. Pollock and Austin Barnes, the 8-9 hitters, led off the third with consecutive singles and scored two hitters later on Corey Seager’s double.
Max Muncy tacked on an RBI single to make it 3-1.
When Cody Bellinger led off the fourth with a homer to dead-center that stat about Kershaw’s dominance uncomfortably loomed.
Then the team that limped offensive in the playoffs, other than one offensive uprising during a slugfest against the Cardinals, recaptured midseason form. Manny Machado started the sixth with a home run to left. Four pitches later, Eric Hosmer boomed one to right.
“They held us down a little bit yesterday and somebody’s got to pay for it,” Machado had predicted.
The Padres would have ripped away the lead in the seventh, but Bellinger scaled the fence to steal a two-run homer from Fernando Tatis Jr. The Dodgers barked at the Padres dugout as they bounced off the field with newfound energy, the game’s slim margin exposed for all to see — and feel.
The Dodgers did Dodgers things in the bottom of the seventh by parlaying a double steal by Mookie Betts and Seager into a pair of runs on Justin Turner’s sacrifice fly and a bloop, run-scoring single by Muncy to make it 6-3.
The Padres seemed to realize the time had come to stop waving the pitchingwoes flags. Regulars Machado, Hosmer, Trent Grisham and Austin Nola entered the game a combined 6-for-59 in four postseason games, gutting the offense. The quartet pushed it to 6-for-67 before Machado and Hosmer cleared the fence in back-to-back at-bats.
On the first one, Machado chucked the bat toward his dugout overhand and screamed with the intensity of a middle linebacker. The Hosmer encore caused Kershaw to bend at the waist in frustration.
Tingler summed up the bigger picture a few hours before first pitch.
“We’ve got to swing the bats better,” he said. They did.
In the tumultuous ninth inning, Jake Cronenworth’s infield single was followed by pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland’s RBI double. With two outs, Grisham lined a runscoring single to right-center to cut the lead to one and chase Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. When Tatis and Machado coaxed full-count walks off reliever Joe Kelly, it loaded the bases.
Hosmer grounded out to end the game that left those watching breathless.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts mentioned Wednesday afternoon that relative success against Machado and Tatis — the pair hit .212 against their rival this season and .303 against everyone else — could be fleeting.
“It’s still one of those things that not always does the past success or failure determine the future,” Roberts said.
Roberts could have included a lot of other hitters in the assessment, as well.
The Dodgers won, despite the unrelenting drama. That, after all, is baseball’s unforgiving bottom line.
The Padres answered a lot of questions, though, starting with this one: Against the Dodgers, the plan to keep the pressure on … now and for a long time.