Everybody thought it was gone. Jurickson Profar hopped round, ostensibly upset that Mookie Betts’ fly ball had dropped into the left subject seats. The digicam panned to Betts triumphantly rounding the bases. The scorebug flipped from zero to 1 below the Dodgers brand. After which, just a few seconds later, all was clear: Profar had pulled a Julio Rodríguez, fooling everybody into considering it was a homer earlier than whipping the ball again into the infield. He wasn’t hopping out of frustration, it turned out; on re-examination, he was participating in some well-earned taunting, goading the assembled Dodgers followers after his glorious defensive play.
JURICKSON PROFAR ROBS MOOKIE!!! #NLDS pic.twitter.com/bvByqwsAKB
— MLB (@MLB) October 7, 2024
Profar’s first-inning house run theft and subsequent gloating was an indication of issues to come back. In a tense conflict between these two Southern California rivals, the Padres got here out on prime, 10-2, to stage the NLDS at a recreation apiece, battling their opponents each on and off the sector all through the course of this weird night.
The weirdness peaked within the seventh inning, when the sport was delayed for over 10 minutes whereas followers threw issues — together with baseballs and beer cans — onto the sector, pausing the motion. Whereas safety guards tried to get the gang below management, Padres supervisor Mike Shildt gathered his fielders, issuing a fiery impromptu pep discuss because the workforce huddled round their appointed chief. After the inning, an excellent bigger group assembly was held within the Padres dugout, this time led by the on-the-field chief, Manny Machado, who issued marching orders to the remainder of the San Diego roster.
Trigger and impact is a difficult factor to parse, however the motivational phrases appeared to do their job. The Padres crushed 4 house runs within the ultimate two innings, turning what was a comparatively shut affair right into a laugher.
The pep talks and subsequent beatdown had been the end result of a sequence of heated engagements between the Padres and what felt at instances like your complete metropolis of Los Angeles. Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty did some swears at Manny Machado. Fernando Tatis Jr. trolled followers in the precise subject bleachers. Joe Davis referred to as the gang “bloodthirsty.” And the Padres themselves had been clearly fired up in a means that they won’t have been in the event that they had been enjoying, say, the Reds.
Earlier than the sport acquired out of hand (in a number of methods) within the late innings, it was starter Yu Darvish who outlined the motion. Darvish was his typical late-career self, mixing and matching seven pitches to maintain the Dodgers — and most significantly Betts and Shohei Ohtani — off-balance all evening. His FIP wasn’t nice — he struck out simply three hitters and walked two over his seven innings — however he reliably generated smooth contact, staying off barrels by preserving hitters in a relentless state of confusion.
Darvish, when he’s on, is such a sleek pitcher. He rests so comfortably on his again foot, preserving his steadiness as he strikes by way of every part of his supply. On Sunday, he was answerable for each his physique and the Dodgers lineup, leveraging one of many widest arsenals in baseball to nice impact. Of his 82 pitches, 17 had been sweepers; at 21% utilization, that was his most incessantly thrown pitch. In his extremely anticipated showdowns in opposition to Ohtani, he confirmed the phenom six pitches. Ohtani struck out the primary time and tapped two innocent groundballs in his second and third attempt.
The protection backed Darvish up superbly. Profar, in fact, introduced again the homer within the first. Tatis snagged a hard-hit line drive off the bat of Freddie Freeman to rob the slugger of a double. Jackson Merrill corralled a hard-hit Enrique Hernández line drive in opposition to the wall. And unlikely defensive hero Luis Arraez made a number of glorious performs in massive spots, killing two rallies by catching a tough line drive and choosing a tricky groundball.
In the meantime, Flaherty was by no means significantly sharp, at the same time as he in the end settled into the sport. He caught round for five.1 innings, giving up 4 runs and placing out two. However after three poor innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto in Sport 1, the Dodgers had been in want of some size from their starter.
Within the first inning, Flaherty averaged 93.9 mph on his fastball, allaying among the issues a couple of September velocity swoon. However the command was not there. He missed his spot on a fastball to Tatis, who calmly deposited it into the Padres’ bullpen. After a stroll to Profar, he hung a slider to Machado, who hit a line drive 111.3 mph — however proper at Max Muncy, who flipped it across the horn to show two.
The second inning was additionally unkind to Flaherty. Merrill reached on a pleasant piece of hitting, taking a fastball up out of the zone and pushing it by way of the outlet within the infield. Two batters later, David Peralta launched a slider into straightaway middle subject. The placement wasn’t poor, however it was in an similar spot to a slider that Flaherty had thrown two pitches prior. After lacking arm facet with a fastball, Peralta was doubtless keyed in on the pitch, and Flaherty threw it precisely the place Peralta had already seen it. Simply as they had been in Sport 1 of the sequence, the Dodgers had been in an early 3-0 gap.
Early on, Darvish wasn’t significantly sharp both, prompting Joe Davis to comment that “it seems like we’re watching final evening’s recreation on repeat.” Darvish did log two strikeouts within the first, together with one in every of Ohtani that featurued 5 completely different pitches — cutter, sluggish curve, sweeper, four-seam fastball, gyro slider. However he almost gave up that house run to Betts, saved solely by the superb protection (and trolling) of Profar. And he instantly bumped into bother within the second, permitting two hits and a stroll to offer the Dodgers a bases loaded, no outs alternative. However he escaped any main bother — after Gavin Lux lofted a fly ball to left subject to get Teoscar Hernández house from third, Tommy Edman tomahawked a liner at a harmful launch angle, however the ball discovered Arraez at first base, who walked over to the bag to safe the double play.
Each starters settled in in the course of the center innings. In Ohtani v. Darvish spherical 2, Darvish switched up his techniques, throwing a sweeper and three splitters, making the most of Ohtani’s aggressiveness. On the third one, Ohtani let his entrance hip leak open and subsequently rolled over to first base. To complete it off, he punched out Betts on an especially uncommon four-seamer. Within the fourth, Darvish acquired some assist from his protection. Tatis, on the run, snatched a 111.4 mph Freeman liner out of midair to avoid wasting a surefire double; Arraez picked a sharply hit Muncy liner and beat him to the bag on the dash.
In the meantime, Flaherty began to search out his fastball, and used his slider to retire the primary two hitters of the fourth, getting smooth contact from each Merrill and Xander Bogaerts. Within the fifth, Flaherty threw plenty of knuckle-curves to left-handed hitters, a tweak he’s made since transferring to LA in August. He used the pitch to induce weak contact from each Peralta and Arraez.
After a raucous begin, the sport had lulled itself into a way of complacency. After a Tatis double within the third, 15 consecutive hitters had been retired by each pitchers earlier than Lux dumped a curveball into middle with one out within the fifth. Going through the underside of the lineup, Darvishhad no bother, jamming Edman with a cutter and getting Miguel Rojas to come out to proper subject to complete his second journey by way of the Dodgers order.
Because the sixth inning started, strategic questions got here to the fore. Would the Dodgers attempt to squeeze one other inning of Flaherty, daring him to navigate this harmful stretch of the Padres order? Would the Padres, with their assassin’s row of relievers, allow Darvish to face Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman for a 3rd time?
In brief order, none of those questions mattered. Upon return from business break, Joe Davis knowledgeable the viewers that Freeman had been faraway from the sport because of ankle discomfort. (After the sport, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts couldn’t say whether or not Freeman would play Sport 3.) On the subsequent pitch, Flaherty plunked Tatis with a sinker that ran an excessive amount of arm facet. Then Profar efficiently dragged a bunt down the third final analysis. It felt like the sport might slip away from the Dodgers, proper right here.
Momentarily, it stayed in touching distance. Flaherty supplied the prospect of hope, placing out Machado on a full rely and barking some unkind phrases on the third baseman as he walked off the mound for the evening. (Flaherty and Machado saved yelling at one another even after the previous had been pulled for a reliever.) Roberts introduced in Anthony Banda to scrub up his mess; Banda, sadly, wanted to take care of Merrill, who laced a single to herald Tatis from second base. However Banda took care of the subsequent two hitters, and the sport remained inside attain, with San Diego up 4-1.
After the Padres went down within the prime of the seventh, the weirdest second of the sport arrived. For over 10 minutes, the sport was delayed as Dodgers followers threw issues from the bleachers, forcing safety to flood the sector to forestall any extra tomfoolery. The lengthy delay appeared to rattle Darvish a bit; sharp all recreation, he walked Teoscar Hernández to steer off the inning. However as he’d completed all recreation, he induced weak contact, retiring the subsequent three hitters with ease.
The dinger parade commenced within the eighth inning. First, after a Machado stroll, Merrill put the sport out of attain, blasting an outer-half Ryan Brasier fastball into the opposite-field seats to make it 6-1. Bogaerts adopted it up two batters later with a solo dinger of his personal. (He was seen grimacing as he rounded the bases and was quickly after pulled from the sport because of hamstring cramping, although he stated he believes he will probably be high quality.) Within the ninth, Kyle Higashioka and Tatis joined the get together with lengthy balls of their very own.
A historic offensive onslaught tonight for the @Padres ?
(MLB x @BudweiserUSA) pic.twitter.com/yMMwEJui7T
— MLB (@MLB) October 7, 2024
Heading into this recreation, there was no query that this was one of many extra passionate rivalries within the sport. The 2 golf equipment have long-tenured stars and well-established reputations; they play in the identical division; their stadiums are only a quick drive aside. However after the Flaherty-Machado back-and-forth, the Tatis trolling, and Profar’s puckish efficiency, it feels just like the dynamic is shifting, the mutual animosity rising, the depth escalating. And this sequence is simply getting began.
