LOS ANGELES — The Dodgers have little issue getting to October, but have had a bunch of trouble once they arrive.
So this year they have tried a new approach and some new talking points regarding matching their opponent’s intensity and providing payback and all manner of other things about focus and attitude.
“I’m just looking to throw the first punch,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Saturday afternoon. “… I’m expecting us to be ready for a fight.”
The Padres landed the initial blow in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, but the Dodgers threw some big punches to get back up twice, and they went on to win 7-5 Saturday night at Dodger Stadium.
“It was a good start, but then they came back,” Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “We put up some runs again, and they still kept coming back. They were better today. We couldn’t hold the door. We couldn’t hold their line moving.”
It was a game worthy of the postseason, with ups and downs and clutch hits and big outs.
The Dodgers made more of the latter two, especially late.
The Padres went up 3-0 in the first inning and retook the lead, at 5-3, in the third before going hitless until the ninth and hardly threatening over the final six innings.
The Dodgers won a major league-best 98 games this season en route to their 12th consecutive postseason appearance. But they entered Saturday having lost six consecutive playoff games — falling in the 2022 NLDS to the Padres and the ’23 NLDS to the Diamondbacks.
They are now two wins from moving on to the NL Championship Series for the first time since 2021.
The Padres will on Sunday try to even the series, as they did in Game 2 here in 2022.
“We’ve been having that mindset all year,” Manny Machado said. “We’ll put this one behind us, come back tomorrow and compete.”
On Saturday, the Padres jumped on Dodgers starting pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto for the third time in his three starts against them this season.
Luis Arraez began the game with a single grounded down the third base line and went to second on a passed ball and to third on a wild pitch before Tatis walked. Jurickson Profar’s groundout to second base scored Arraez and moved Tatis to second before Machado launched a splitter that hung up thigh-high into the bleachers beyond left-center field.
The Padres have scored nine first-inning runs against Yamamoto and 13 runs in his nine total innings against them.
What they got Saturday was not enough against the potent and patient Dodgers offense.
The Dodgers don’t chase many pitches out of the zone, and they refused to offer at the slider with which Padres starter Dylan Cease successfully tempts so many batters. Cease was behind a lot and went to 3-2 against three of the first six batters he faced.
“Obviously, they’re good hitters, and they were patient,” said Cease, who would be charged with five runs in 3⅓ innings. “But I really feel like I didn’t execute well. That’s what it comes down to.”
The third of those full counts led to a leadoff walk by Will Smith to begin the bottom of the second inning. Gavin Lux followed with a single before Cease struck out No.8 hitter Tommy Edman and got Miguel Rojas on a pop-up.
Cease then fell behind 2-0 against Shohei Ohtani before the slugger fouled a pitch off his left knee. Ohtani took a few moments to walk around the dirt before stepping in and drilling a 97 mph fastball at the top of the zone just beyond the wall in right field.
Cease’s 54th pitch struck out Mookie Betts to end the second inning.
Tatis led off the third with a double to the gap in left-center. After Profar popped out and Machado flied out to the track in left field, Jackson Merrill worked back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk. And Xander Bogaerts followed with a double down the left field line to bring both runners around.
Cease had worked around a lead-off single and stolen base by Freddie Freeman to get through the third, taking another 18 pitches to do so.
He began the fourth with an out before a bunt single by Edman and a single lined to left field by Rojas ended his night.
“That kind of killed me right there,” Cease said. “Definitely frustrating.”
Left-hander Adrián Morejón was brought in to face the left-handed-hitting Ohtani, and the presumptive National League MVP flared a broken-bat single into center field to load the bases.
With Betts up, a splitter from Morejón got past Higashioka, as Edman ran home uncontested and the other two runners moved up.
That prompted the Padres to intentionally walk Betts, despite there being a 2-2 count, which loaded the bases.
Padres manager Mike Shildt explained his move by saying Betts doesn’t generally strike out or chase against left-handers, so they prefered the left-on-left matchup against Freeman.
It almost worked, as first baseman Donovan Solano made a bold throw home to force out Rojas on a grounder by Freeman to get the Padres an out away from escaping with the lead.
That didn’t happen, as right-hander Jeremiah Estrada came in to face Teoscar Hernández and surrendered a two-run single to center field to put the Dodgers up for the first time.
They added an unearned run against Estrada in the sixth with help from an error by Machado, who fielded a routine grounder by Smith and threw it high over Solano and into the Padres dugout.
That put Smith on second base, and he moved to third on a single by Gavin Lux and scored on Edman’s double-play grounder.
Yamamoto was replaced at the start of the fourth, and Kyle Higashioka’s one-out double off Ryan Brasier would be the Padres’ last hit until Tatis lined a two-out single in the ninth.
Three Dodgers relievers retired 11 straight batters before Profar led off the eighth inning with a walk against Michael Kopech. A one-out walk (on 10 pitches) by Merrill against Kopech and two-out walk by Jake Cronenworth against Blake Treinen loaded the bases before Donovan Solano struck out.
In the ninth, Treinen surrendered Tatis’ hit and then walked Profar before ending the game by striking out Machado.
“We need to fight, and that’s what we did tonight,” Roberts said. “Didn’t get an ideal start. But guys in the ‘pen picked us up, and the offense was relentless with their at-bats.”
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