HADER CAN’T CLOSE DOOR
The Padres were off on Thursday and are again today, convenient bookends that allowed manager Bob Melvin to attack the first Dodgers series of the season with everything he had. It was almost enough. Almost. Joe Musgrove allowed just an unearned run in his first Petco Park start of the season and three relievers teamed up to hand Josh Hader a one-run lead. But the majors’ saves leader stumbled for the first time, allowing Mookie Betts’ game-tying homer with two outs in the ninth and the Dodgers piled on in the 10th in a 5-2 win that handed the first NLDS rematch to
L.A.
“It’s just baseball,” Hader said. “When you have two good teams facing each other, with the lineup stacked on both sides, it’s going to be a tight game. Those mistakes that get hit or vice versa, that we hit, it’s going to be the game-changing hit.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. delivered two of those hits on Friday, home runs off Clayton Kershaw. Chris Taylor’s home run off Blake Snell was the difference on Saturday. On Sunday, the Padres’ offense fell silent after three first-inning doubles staked them to a 2-0 lead, a Juan Soto error in left field helped set up the Dodgers’ first run in the sixth and Hader, after two quick outs, dug himself into a 3-1 hole
Deposited over the wall in left for his first blown save of the season, sending a Dodger-heavy, sellout crowd of 43,994 into a frenzy.
“It’s really easy to be like, ‘I could have thrown a slider there or I could have thrown a different pitch,’ ” said Hader, whose slider usage has dropped from 28.3 percent last year to 12.2 percent this year. “But when you put yourself in a position where you’re falling behind in the count to a good hitter like that, obviously the room for error, you really can’t (do that). At the end of the day, the way I’ve started the season, it’s been solid. So continue to execute pitches and attack the zone.”
The Dodgers weren’t done. Held down for three innings by Tim Hill, Steven Wilson and Nick
Martinez, they scored three more times in the 10th, all after Brent Honeywell Jr. recorded the first two outs.
But rookie Michael Busch dropped a line drive into left field in front of Soto, scoring the runner placed on second base to start extra innings, rookie James Outman pulled a home run over the wall in right for insurance and Evan Phillips sat down the side in order in the 10th to claim Round 1 for the Dodgers.
The two teams will meet again in Chavez Ravine this weekend and then not again until the first week of August, when there will be just seven games left between them.
“You definitely don’t get as many chances against these guys (this year) and whenever you play an in-division team you know that’s the best way to climb in the rankings or to separate yourself if you’re at the top,” Musgrove said after allowing an unearned run in five-plus innings. “So you know, first series here, we’ll see these guys again next weekend and I think we threw the ball really well against them. A few more hits here and there, I think we walk away pretty comfortable with how we played in the series.”
It certainly started well, with Tatis leading the way on Friday and doubling out the gate on Sunday. Manny Machado then shot the gap for the first of his three hits and Xander Bogaerts followed with a double, staking Musgrove to a 2-0 lead.
Musgrove had his battles with command, walking three in the game and falling behind hitters throughout. But he did not allow a hit until Taylor dumped a two-out single over first baseman Jake Cronenworth in the fifth and that was stranded immediately when Betts flied out to right.
The end of his afternoon arrived quickly after that, with Soto having Freddie Freeman’s catchable drive toward the left-field corner bounced off his glove for a two-base error to start the sixth. Will Smith followed with a run-scoring double to left and Melvin immediately went to a well-rested bullpen.
Twice actually.
First, Hill entered, struck out Max Muncy and got pinch-hitter Miguel Rojas to fly out to center. But Hill hit the left-handed Outman, Wilson took his place on the mound and walked Miguel Vargas before getting David Peralta to pop out to second
to leave the bases loaded.
Wilson fetched the first two outs of the seventh before giving way to Martinez, who got the final out of that frame but allowed a leadoff double to Smith and walked Muncy to start the eighth.
But Martinez struck out
rookie Busch, got Outman to fly out to left and pumped his fist with enthusiasm after Bogaerts’ leaping catch on what would have been a game-tying hit.
To that point, the game had pretty much gone to script as far as the bullpen
was concerned.
“Yeah, we tried to get the best matchups we possibly could,” Melvin said. “With an off-day and a bullpen that’s fairly rested, we did the best we could with it.”