Dodger fans had barely settled in their seats before they were stunned by the Padres scoring three runs off of Yamamoto. The big blow was a 2-run homer by Dodger nemesis Manny Machado. A walk to Betts and a single by Freeman got the fans hopes up in the bottom of the inning, but Teo hit into a force play and Muncy struck out. Yoshi had a clean second inning. In the bottom of the second, Smith walked and Lux singled. Edman struck out, and Rojas popped out. That brought-up Ohtani who hit a rocket into the right field seats tying the game.
Yamamoto could not hold the lead though. The Padres came back and scored 2 in the top of the third. Yamamoto would leave after the inning was over. He gave up a leadoff double to Tatis. Profar popped out and Machado flied out. Merrill walked and then Bogaerts hit a double down the line scoring both runners. In the bottom of the inning, Freeman singled, then stole second, but he was left stranded as Teo, Max and Smith made outs.
Brasier came in to pitch the fourth and gave up just a double to Higashioka. In the bottom of the fourth, Lux grounded out and Edman bunted for a single. Rojas singled to left. Morejon replaced Cease and Ohtani then singled off of him. With Betts up, Morejon threw a wild pitch and Edman scored making it 5-4. They walked Betts intentionally. Freeman hit a ball to Solano who threw home to force out Rojas. Estrada replaced Morejon. Teo then singled to left scoring Ohtani and Betts. Dodgers up 6-5.
Through the next 2 innings the bullpen kept the Padres at bay. Ine the bottom of the fifth, the Dodgers scored an insurance run. Smith got aboard on an error by Machado. Lux singled and Smith went to third. Edman hit into a double play and Smith scored. Rojas struck out to end the inning. That would be the end of the scoring. LA fans got a scare in the 8th when Kopech came in. Profar walked and Machado struck out. Merrill then walked and Roberts brought in Treinen to replace Kopech.
Bogaerts popped out, then Cronenworth walked loading the bases. Treinen then struck out Solano to end the inning. The Dodgers got a single from Edman, Rojas popped out on a bunt. Ohtani struck out and they walked Betts. Freeman then struck out. In the top of the 9th, Treinen went back out to try and complete a 5-out save. He struck out Diaz and Arraez lined out to Lux. Then things got a little sticky. Tatis singled and Profar walked. Treinen then struck out Machado to end the game. Brasier got the win, Treinen the save. The loss went to Morejon. Ohtani, Lux, Freeman, and Edman all had 2 hits. The Dodgers had 10 as a team and drew 5 walks. They struck out 9 times and were 4-16 with men in scoring position and they left 8 men on base. 5 of their 7 runs were earned.
Great game #1 win. Ten more to go. Flaherty hopefully can go 5 or 6 innings tomorrow. Treinen cannot go tomorrow but I believe the Kopech, Philllips, Vesia and Brasier can go at least one inning.
Shohei is THE MAN. The Dodgers will go as far as he can carry them.
Please go 6 innings in tomorrow’s game Mr. Flaherty. ….please.
Huge win for the Dodgers. A gutsy performance.
If this continues I will run out of my heart pills before Monday! 😀
Great win, important for the team to get off to a winning start in the postseason.
Team showed great resiliency after falling down immediately by 3 runs.Othani energized them and the crowd with his 3 run shot when they needed it the most.
Bullpen absolutely nails even if they made it nerve wrecking in the 8th and 9th.
I noticed that Treinen was hitting 97 mph which is an increase of 2-3 mph over the regular season. He and Brasier going both 1.2 innings was huge.
Lux was great at the dish and in the field. Clutch defensive play late.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One more thing: Doc managed a very good game. Taking out Kopech for Treinen quickly probably saved that game. Kopech just did not have it this day.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!1
The “relief” of victory.
Man that was tense. I had a tough time falling asleep. And USC’s failure didn’t help. UCLA lost too but that was expected.
Perusing the box score – Yamamoto was awful, the bullpen was great. Bottom of the order all had hits, team 4 for 16 WRISP. That is a lot of at bats with runners in scoring position. Betts, Muncy and Smith all 0fer but Betts and Smith with 5 base on balls between them. If I’m the Padres I don’t walk Betts until he proves he can hit.
I noticed Teo wasn’t given an error for that ball that went through him. Home field scoring? It was an error.
Edman hit RH against a RHP. I’ve been thinking he should do more of that. He’s a terrible LH hitter, though that was a nice bunt. If he could go oppo more often he might could hit .250 left handed.
This team is obviously Ohtani led. He does what he does, they will win more than they lose. I’m hoping Betts and Muncy snap out of it, Freddie can hang in there, and the starting pitching can go 5.
Great beginning. Finish it.
I think the blast radius from Ohtani’s bombs, reaches at least San Diego in the Division race. Ohtaniism will become the new dynastic religion, after we sweep up the East Coast and demand they take the knee. The rising sun still lives.
Great win and completely relieved we survived Yakatori’s start, but should I really feel that good if we had to just survive his start? Obviously the Dodgers felt he was our best option to start Game 1 after a 5 day rest but geez!
This is going to be a tough road ahead, bully is going to have to pitch lights out. HOwever, I do expect Walker to re-emerge as our real ace during the playoffs (he had better or we are in trouble).
OHtani is really on an amazing tear.
Bullpen working makes Roberts a genius (and maybe he was, he did change up his use of the bully and allow pitchers to pitch more than 1 inning).
In the playoffs one must stay in the present. The present called for Treinen to go two innings. Take care of tomorrow when the time comes. Treinen will be ready for game 3 if needed. Ohtani was great. It’s a good when he has to be pitched too because of Betts and Freeman. Freddy showed what kind of a competitor he is especially when he stoled second. For him to even be playing at this level for what he’s gone through with his ankle and son, etc. shows his character. Long way to go and a short time to get there. I love this team.
The game went much like most thought. Questionable, at best, starting pitching. Solid results from the bullpen. Ohtani and some offense from the other superstars. Ohtani. The once, highly criticized, bottom of the order came through big time. The team succeeded in employing the “Badger rule” in winning the game. With recent run production in the playoffs, Badger’s rule of needing to score 7-8 runs in order to win, seemed unlikely. But, they came through. Let’s hope that continues for at least another 10 games.
A very entertaining game. If they can continue to produce close to last night’s offensive output I’ll be fine with that. That should be enough to win a World Series. Even with this production, the biggest obstacle is their starting pitching.
Regardless, it will be fun to watch.
Csrry on
A note on Kershaw not coming back at all this year. I am sure this is not how CK wants his career to end. But the only way it can continue is if he has off-season surgery to fix his toe. And he has not made that decision yet. Both Verlander and Scherzer have said they are going to pitch next year. Will CK do the same or does he finally call it quits?
I find this curious considering how long Darvish has been in the league, only five current Dodgers have had at-bats against Darvish, Betts, Smith, Freeman, Muncy and Lux. Freeman and Muncy have tagged him for homers. No Dodger has more than 3 at bats against him. Even more curious is that none of the Padres have faced Flaherty. Maybe these stats are just from this season. Weird.
It did not take much effort to go out on a limb and say that Ohtani and Teo were going to be difference makers in the series. No, Yoshi Yamamoto did not have his good command. But as off as he was, so was SD Ace Dylan Cease. So if it was the Dodger bats that were so good, why cannot it not be that the Padres bats were also good.
Yamamoto had a horrible Game 1 in the 2023 Japan Series. He came back in Game 6 to tie the series with a brilliant complete game, allowing 1 run, no BB, and 14 K. Japanese pitchers do pitch once a week, but the number of pitches are not as much of a concern. He is still coming off a shoulder injury, but maybe he should have been allowed to go more than 71 pitches in his last start in Colorado, working more on his command. Do I think he was unlucky? NO, He got his butt kicked. I do agree with John Smoltz that he was trying to get too many swing and misses with the breaking stuff when it was clear it was not working, while his fastball was. I believe in the old adage, if you are going to get beat, get beat with your best stuff. There was not one hard hit ball on his 4-seamer, but every one of his offspeed/breaking balls had 100+MPH against it. Why force something that was not there.
But I do believe it will be there his next outing. Some will say that will be Game 5 NLDS, I say Game 1 NLCS.
I understand why Mookie was walked intentionally. After the Morejon WP, that put runners on 2nd and 3rd, Schildt had a choice. Continue to pitch to Mookie. This was Schildt’s thinking:
“Mookie, against lefties, is not going to hit ground balls,” Shildt explained. “He’s not going to strike out, pretty much. And he’s going to walk. So now you can sit there and say, ‘Eh, let’s tap dance around him.’ No, let’s go to Freddie [Freeman] with Morejon, who throws a 50 percent ground-ball rate against lefties.”
It actually worked. LHRP Morejon got the ground ball and the force at the plate. Teoscar was not going to face the LHRP, so Schildt brought in a highly effective RHRP, Jeremiah Estrada. Estrada is a big strikeout pitcher, and Teo was not going to let Estrada work him. Teo swung at the first strike and got the 2-out 2-run single into RF.
The only batter not to reach base was Max Muncy. He was my dark horse difference maker, and he still might be. However, he is going to need to change his approach.
1sr AB – Runners on 1st and 3rd, 2 outs — K.
2nd AB – Runner on 2nd, 1 out — Fly out F7. A non-productive out.
3rd AB – Runners on 1st and 3rd, 2 outs — K.
4th AB – Nobody on — Fly out F8.
That is 5 runners LOB, 2 in scoring position. Quit trying to hit a ball 600 feet from your knees WRSIP, especially with 2 strikes.
I do not know of a perfect game. This was a well-played game with LAD’s two strengths (hitting and bullpen) coming through. I fully expect Yamamoto to bounce back, and I am hopeful that Muncy will find a way. But you cannot get too upset when your 6-9 batters reach base 7-16 with 5 hits and 2 walks. Your turn the lineup over 4 full times in 8 innings after facing a legit Ace and a standout bullpen. Ohtani, Betts, and Freeman each had 5 PA.
Roberts mentioned after the game that Yamamoto may have been tipping pitches (aka Devin Williams), hopefully fixable.
muncy looked poor, but he was hitting so well going into the playoffs.
thanks to the above explanation of the IBB. Very non-stat headed move. Glad it didn’t work out.
In a follow-up to the Royals – Yankees “hard” playing post of a couple of days ago, I stole this factoid from another board to show another way the game has profoundly changed:
In the 1963 World Series and again in 1966, the Dodgers only rostered 9 pitchers.
We need Max to show up tonite and hit. If Muncy and ohtani hit that means runs for the team but when max doesn’t hit and strikeout that hurts every rally seems to stall because runners on and max strikesout. And flarethy hS to go six inningsif he doesn’t that’s bad news for us because taht meas the Padres are scoring runs if he doesn’t go six innings. Betts needs to get hit Teo and Smith I don’t know wants wrong with Freeman but seems like he is slumping but if all five hit we should win tonite if they don’t then that has me worried have to get game two tonite. With Buehler And Knack pitching game 3 and 4 in San Diego must get game 2 tonite.
Did the long layoff hurt Philly, or is NYM just playing amazing right now?
I choose the 2nd theory; Mets are hot and do not quit
Looks like it could be a long night with John Libka as plate umpire. Flaherty struck out Profar twice and did not get the call.
What a dick move by Profar in the outfield (letting Mookie run the bases thinking he has a HR). Padres really don’t want to be liked, do they? Comes naturally to them.
If me or any of my baseball buddies are in those stands I promise you Profar doesn’t make that catch.
Gotta score 8.
The starting pitching is horrendous. They give up minimum 3-4 runs in the first 2 innings every game.
On another note, the padres are a nasty despicable club.
I’ll make this short because it’s during the game. Good win yesterday. Good hitting and a good bullpen is a good combination. Flaherty is prone to giving up home runs as he is today. Same goes for Knack and Buehler. Buehler was great before his injury, so there’s hope for him.
The Padres have to be the most arrogant team in MLB. Profar with a dick move on the catch to rob Betts and Tatis with that stutter step at 3B on his HR.
1 – The problem with this bad starting pitching is these are the 2 best guys the Dodgers have. Yikes!
2 – Great win yesterday. Teamwide effort. Will require the same today.
3 – Can Mookie get a hit this year?
4 – Bases loaded, no out – only 1 run?
5 – I hope someone’s up in the bullpen. I hope it’s not Grove
Lots of bad luck with hard hit balls, i figure they will soon turn into hits (or in Mookie’s car, homers,)
Profar is bitching about a fan throwing a ball at him. Well guess what, he asked for it for being a dick. (Showboater)
Can’t expect the bullpen to be perfect. I DON’T blame Doc for bringing in Brasier because Brasier is one of the best relievers on the team.
Doc has definitely given up on this game because he brought in Grove.
The Mookie Magic Act. He is really is good at vanishing in October,
is anyone surprised by this pathetic showing?
Why Brasier?
He pitched yesterday.
Why not Henriquez and his triple-digit heat?
Easy to say in hindsight, but haven’t we been waiting for Roberts to use a rookie he described as “a weapon”?
Bleh
Starting pitching, bullpen, offense, and defense. Last night we got 3 out of 4. Tonight only 1(defense). Starter, bullpen, and offense all sucked.