LOS ANGELES — The stakes and circumstances of those subsequent three nights couldn’t be clearer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Take the sequence towards the San Diego Padres, and also you pour champagne to commemorate an eleventh division title in 12 seasons.
Lose, and issues get sophisticated.
“We’re attempting to place these guys to mattress,” Dave Roberts stated forward of the Dodgers’ greatest September sequence since not less than 2021.
Issues acquired sophisticated on Tuesday night time.
These Padres stay stressed. These Dodgers squandered likelihood after likelihood. A game-sealing triple play spun completely in the direction of Manny Machado to squelch the final Dodgers alternative earlier than its climax.
A TRIPLE PLAY! TO SECURE A SPOT IN THE POSTSEASON! UNREAL! pic.twitter.com/NfbCRgt0Y6
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) September 25, 2024
So it was the Padres who celebrated with champagne on Tuesday, who cheered on the sphere postgame and screamed “Manny!” with glee in the direction of a shirtless Machado as they posed for pictures.
And after a 4-2 Dodgers loss, the door is not less than barely cracked open. San Diego clinched a postseason spot Tuesday, with much more doable. The Padres management their future for the division with 5 video games left to play.
This, regardless of giving the Dodgers ample alternatives to arrange for a champagne bathe as quickly as tomorrow night time.
The final got here within the ninth, as Will Smith, Tommy Edman and Kiké Hernández strung collectively consecutive singles towards struggling Padres nearer Robert Suarez to steer off the inning. A second late comeback in as many video games beckoned, with Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts due up behind Miguel Rojas with potential cracks on the knockout blow.
Rojas squared round to bunt as Suarez’s first fastball caught the within nook for a strike. The bunt sign got here off as Machado inched nearer from third base and Xander Bogaerts moved nearer to the opening. Jake Cronenworth hovered close to the second-base bag.
“So you possibly can’t bunt since you’re bunting into an out,” Roberts defined, with the Padres lined up for a “wheel play.”
Rojas anticipated a fastball in. He acquired it and pounded it onto the bottom … proper at Machado, who inside two steps touched third and fired to Cronenworth at second. The following throw beat Rojas at first base with ease.
So went the twenty eighth game-ending triple play in baseball historical past, based on the Society of American Baseball Analysis.
“Surprising,” Roberts stated.
“I’ve by no means been part of one thing like that,” Rojas stated.
So went one other likelihood.
“I feel I let the crew down on that one,” Rojas stated.
Roberts stated he didn’t think about leaving the bunt signal on for Rojas even after the primary strike.
“I simply don’t assume that you just’re anticipating a triple play,” Roberts stated. “He hit the ball exhausting. And I simply can’t play the sport of, if it will get via then it’s an awesome play after which if it hits proper at him it’s a foul play. The sport tells you what to do. And in that scenario, everyone seems to be taking part in in, the shortstop is within the six gap. There’s simply a number of holes on the market. That’s simply type of the best way you play baseball.”
As a substitute, Ohtani stood and watched from the on-deck circle and Betts watched from the dugout because the night time got here to a swift and beautiful finish.
“There’s lower than a 1 % likelihood that Shohei doesn’t come as much as bat,” Roberts stated. “And sadly that small proportion got here into play.”
By then, the missed alternatives had piled up.
Ohtani rocketed Michael King’s first pitch for a double, and Bogaerts threw Betts’ groundball into the visiting dugout to carry Ohtani residence. The opportunism ceased there. Betts acquired caught in no man’s land on a delayed double steal try to finish the inning. When King hit Rojas with a two-strike sweeper with two outs and Ohtani labored a two-strike rely right into a stroll to load the bases, Betts struck out.
Going a mixed 2-for-10 with runners in scoring place gained’t be sufficient to stave off a Padres crew that sat at .500 as late as June 21 and has since gone 51-26. Nor was it sufficient for Landon Knack to have easy crusing as he continues his audition to begin a postseason sport for the Dodgers as quickly as subsequent week.
Cronenworth punished a dangling changeup for a two-run shot off Knack within the second. Then the Padres wore him down within the fourth, forcing an emotionally exhausted Knack to throw 39 pitches whereas selecting up a pair of two-out runs on Bogaerts’ smashed single up the center and Cronenworth’s double to left.
“I’m someone who must throw indignant once I throw, and I feel that inning, I let a bit of bit an excessive amount of of it out, as a substitute of maintaining it into hone that stuff a bit of bit, simply to maintain making every thing a bit of sharper,” Knack defined. “I used to be within the zone, however simply couldn’t fairly make the pitches the place I wanted to. And so it simply type of type of spiraled on me there.
By way of 14 appearances within the massive leagues, Knack has a 3.74 ERA. Given the state of the Dodgers’ pitching employees, that’s greater than ok to qualify for an opportunity at beginning a sport subsequent month. However with a 6.27 ERA in seven begins towards golf equipment inside postseason rivalry, Tuesday confirmed the boundaries of such a plan.
That this sequence issues this a lot is a testomony to what the Padres have completed since turning it on in mid-June. For years, these across the Dodgers have alluded to San Diego’s penchant for turning it up towards them. Currently, it hasn’t mattered who they’ve performed.
Their lineup has stars. Their bullpen is dominant. Their beginning pitching has been ok. That’s the blueprint the Dodgers hope may carry them this coming October. It’s been working for San Diego.
“I’m positive they’re nonetheless hungry,” Roberts stated. “However it’s crew, man.”
This has made it all of the extra crucial to shut out the division — together with a first-round bye, and probably the highest seed — as quickly as doable.
“That is type of mini-postseason for us — a three-game sequence the place we’ve acquired to win the sequence,” Rojas stated. “We acquired a chance tonight and we didn’t get it accomplished.”
(Picture of Kiké Hernández being compelled out at second, a part of a game-ending triple play: Gary A. Vasquez / Imagn Pictures)
