Not many tabbed the San Diego Padres to beat the New York Mets in the wild-card round and even fewer picked them against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have dominated the Padres in the past few years and were the MLB’s best team during the regular season, but they are all even after Manny Machado homered early and added an RBI double off Clayton Kershaw, and Jurickson Profar singled home the go-ahead run to win 5-3 on Wednesday.
The Padres’ victory tied 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.”
Photo: AFP
The Padres beat the Dodgers for the first time in the post-season.
San Diego were swept 3-0 by the Dodgers in a 2020 Division Series and lost Game 1 of this series on 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.”
Photo: AFP
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.
Photo: AFP
Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Trea Turner went deep for the Dodgers.
“Don’t take anybody lightly in the post-season,” Freeman said. “They’re here for a reason. They play good baseball, they played really good against the Mets, and they just came out on top today.”
The teams traded one-run leads on a night when two of the MLB’s elite pitchers — Kershaw and Yu Darvish of the Padres — got knocked around a bit. In the middle innings, it became a battle of the bullpens for the second straight game.
Photo: AP
Hader, who got the final out of the eighth, gave up a two-out double to Freeman off the right-center wall in the ninth. That brought up Will Smith as the potential tying run at the plate, but he flied out to right to end the game.
“Freeman hits an 0-2 pitch that’s up around his chin that I don’t know how he even gets to and then all of a sudden you are one pitch away from being in trouble again,” Melvin said.
PHILLIES-BRAVES
In the other NLDS series, the Philadelphia Phillies’ hitters came up empty in a 3-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves that evened their best-of-five series at a game apiece.
Kyle Schwarber — who led the NL with 46 home runs for the Phillies this season and in Game 1 scored seven runs on 12 hits — struck out three times and finished none for four to return to the dugout after his last at-bat in a none for 16 post-season slump.
“For me, you’ve got to be able to put the ball in play,” Schwarber 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 [today].”
Schwarber is not alone in his struggles. Rhys Hoskins, who bats No. 2 in the lineup behind Schwarber, is one for 18 in the playoffs and went none for four in Game 2.
Nick Castellanos was none for three after driving in three runs with three hits in Game 1.
Braves closer Kenley Jansen retired Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper in order to end the game.
The night unraveled for Phillies starter Zack Wheeler when he hit Ronald Acuna Jr on the inside of his right elbow with two outs in the sixth.
Acuna stayed down in a crouched position in obvious pain for a couple of minutes, but got up, went to first base and stayed in the game.
Dansby Swanson followed with a walk before Wheeler gave up a hard-hit grounder to Matt Olson that glanced off Hoskins’ glove at first for a single that scored Acuna from second and broke a scoreless tie.
Atlanta scored again without the ball leaving the infield when Austin Riley hit a dribbler up the third-base line that Wheeler fielded, but not in time to make a throw to first, allowing Swanson to score from third.
Travis d’Arnaud followed with a single up the middle to score Olson from second.
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