LOS ANGELES — There’s an alley-fight edge and atmosphere when playing the Mets at rowdy, rocking and enthusiastically profane Citi Field during the Major League Baseball playoffs.
You hear the fans, untold beers deep. You feel the unwelcomeness, bone deep.
That scene and place, where the Padres shut down a 101-win team in the last of just three win-or-else playoff games in franchise history, will be an experience veterans can tap into Friday during Game 5 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
It’s back-to-the-wall stuff. Us-against-the-world stuff.
The Padres not only won that night, but dominated in a 6-0 tone-setter that carried them past the Dodgers and into the NLCS for the first time since 1998.
“Win or go home,” second baseman Jake Cronenworth said. “We played one of our best games we played all year.”
The Dodgers, fresh off an 8-0 road tone-setter of their own in Game 4, are deeper and miles more dangerous than those Mets. And New York did not trot out Shohei Ohtani or anyone remotely close.
Roster turnover also limits the reach of that on-the-job training across the current clubhouse collective.
The lessons from Citi Field can apply, but only to a point.
“There’s a little bit (of benefit), but every game is the same for us this year,” said Jurickson Profar, who played in that decider against the Mets. We set up that mentality already after the All-Star break. I know this is different, this is a playoff game, but the mentality of this team, we’re going to win every game.”
They still might hope to dust off value from that chilly drama in Queens. They hope it’s pack-able and shareable. They hope it’s not just a warming memory, but ammunition.
Cronenworth, Profar, Manny Machado and relief pitcher Robert Suarez played in the NLCS table-setter two years ago. Machado finished with two hits and an RBI. Profar recorded a hit and scored. Suarez authored a scoreless inning.
There’s a line to walk, according to Suarez.
“It’s good to learn from it, but that’s in the past,” Suarez said through interpreter Danny Sanchez. “You can learn a lot, but at the same time, we have to be in the present.”
The Dodgers’ shutout Wednesday in front of the biggest Petco Park crowd in history silenced the Padres’ momentum and mojo after back-to-back wins. It ramped up the heat, dropping them into a season-on-the-brink pressure cooker.
Fresher experiences, however, sit at their glove tips.
The Padres led Game 1 3-0, then 5-3, before falling 7-5. They tied a postseason record with six home runs in Game 2, a 10-2 knockout where fans threw baseballs and beers on the field.
Amid that disconcerting theater, Yu Darvish, who will start Friday, fought through his fractured rhythm to toss seven innings while giving up just three hits and one run.
“We’re not putting that pressure on us,” Profar said of 2022 before shifting to the situation now. “Just try to go there and do us. We know if we do us, we’re going to win. We’ve won here before this year.
“If we do the things that we do, we will win. If we don’t take care of business, we won’t win, like (Wednesday).”
Memories, new and older, remain at the ready.
Will they matter?
“You draw from your experiences throughout your career,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “I think you draw from experiences from previous games here during the season, which we’ve had success earlier in the series. I think you always draw from your experience if you’re growing.”
Make no mistake, the Padres require more than the spaces between their ears to beat back the Dodgers in the barking belly of the beast.
They’ll need to find and expose cracks in the Dodgers’ bullpen baton-passing that presents a major problem because of the insane depth and variety of looks.
The Padres would smooth out some of the bumps by scoring first, so they can deploy their own talented late-game arms.
Sprinkling in experiences, though, might aid along the fringes.
“Every at-bat is the most important. Every pitch is the most important,” Cronenworth said of takeaways from 2022. “I think this team does a great job of focusing on not making the moment as big as it is.”
Find a way, and the Mets await again.
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