In first series at Petco Park since October, Dodgers claim tense Game 1: ‘We’ll take it’

Sports

add

SAN DIEGO — Petco Park is where doors slid and legacies shifted for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The last time they were here in October, it nearly torched a World Series run before it ever began, pushing the Dodgers to the brink of elimination in the National League Division Series.

Instead, they returned on Monday for the first time as MLB’s defending champions. Still, they’ll be quick to remind you how close this place came to being a house of horrors. Ask just about anyone in the Dodgers’ massive traveling party through each of the club’s celebrations last October, and they’d wholeheartedly tell you one fact.

No team gave them a bigger test last year than the San Diego Padres. The Dodgers still feel that way.

“That was the best team we played in the postseason last year,” Max Muncy said.

“They were the better team,” Kiké Hernández said.

“They’re a really talented ball club, they’re gonna fight till the end against us,” said manager Dave Roberts. “They’ve been waiting for this series for redemption.”

The same clubs didn’t really meet on Monday. Neither starting pitcher, Los Angeles’ Dustin May nor San Diego’s Nick Pivetta, was part of the active rosters during last year’s NLDS. Several key contributors are on the mend. Even if this is a collision course for a fourth postseason matchup in six seasons, the rosters will look much different come October.

The stakes were relevant nonetheless.

The hobbled Dodgers still clung to a one-game division lead at the start of a stretch of 10 straight games against the Padres and the San Francisco Giants, their two chief competitors for the NL West crown. Where they emerge after these 10 games will matter quite a bit when it comes to setting the tone for the rest of the summer.

Monday provided a good start for Los Angeles. It just took extra innings as San Diego pushed it yet again. Andy Pages’ run-scoring double broke the seal in the 10th inning on a night that ended with an identical result to last year’s NLDS: the Dodgers came back and won 8-7 in 10 innings.

The game matched the hype. Not that this series needs much extra. Not off the heels of a postseason series that featured barbs from both managers — San Diego’s Mike Shildt accused Freddie Freeman of playing “possum” with his right ankle (that ultimately required surgery) after Game 1, and Roberts agitated a tiff with Padres star Manny Machado — to go with on-field fireworks.

Roberts, for his part, said he hasn’t spoken with Machado since last year’s postseason, when the manager accused the star third baseman and former Dodger of being “disrespectful” in how he threw a baseball towards the Dodgers’ dugout. Nor did the two interact much on Monday.

“I’m sure we’ll chat a little bit,” Roberts said. “But there’s a mutual respect. Like I said last year, it’s gamesmanship. We’re doing what we can to help our clubs win. But the love and respect, nothing has changed.”

Nothing has changed, including the electricity that comes with this matchup. Both starters combined to allow 11 runs. The two sides swapped leads three times in the game’s first three innings. Mistakes got punished. Two clubs that know each other well seemed poised to jump on each other’s weak spots. Game planning for one another, Muncy said, is “the hardest.”

Each team is poised for the counterpunch before the first punch is even thrown.

“Like I said last year, it’s a street fight,” Roberts said.

The Dodgers stressed Pivetta for 32 pitches in a two-run first, only for May to cough up the lead in a span of just four batters. A pair of May walks in the second inning set the stage for San Diego to jump out in front, as Jake Cronenworth scored when Will Smith’s throw to try to nab a stealing Fernando Tatis Jr. trickled away.

That lead lasted just three batters as Teoscar Hernández lofted a sacrifice fly to the warning track and Smith launched a go-ahead two-run shot. The Padres struck back in the following half-inning, as Tyler Wade lofted a fly ball into the gap that Hernández couldn’t track, resulting in a go-ahead, bases-clearing three-run triple. Hyeseong Kim knotted things back up in the fifth with a double down the line.

“We know that all the teams, when they play the Dodgers, they see us as one of the best teams,” Pages said in Spanish. “We didn’t expect any less of them. They knew they needed to bring their best and score the most runs possible.”

The night’s frenetic pace should come as no surprise. The Padres stressed the Dodgers yet again, taking advantage of a staff that had issued walks at the highest rate (10.6 percent) in the sport and making May’s life difficult. The Dodgers waited out Pivetta and punched before San Diego could bring in its array of elite late-inning relievers. The early rounds were a flurry of blows before the game settled into yet another nailbiting affair between two teams who have combined for quite a few close contests.

Pages, who has compiled a compelling All-Star case, struck the biggest blow. The 24-year-old outfielder had all of two plate appearances in last year’s series, but laced a double to open extra innings, allowing Max Muncy to race around as Padres left fielder Brandon Lockridge took a horrific route to the baseball. Tommy Edman followed with a sharp groundball that ricocheted off second base for what would prove to be a vital insurance run. Tanner Scott started off the inning with a backdoor slider that may or may not have grazed the outside part of the plate for strike three to Machado.

“Luckily, it worked out in my favor,” Scott said.

Machado disagreed, voicing his displeasure with home-plate umpire Mike Estabrook.

Scott held on, keeping the tying run at second base to close out the win against his former club. Again, the Dodgers mustered a way to fend off the competition.

“It wasn’t a pretty game to be quite honest, but we found a way to win,” Roberts said. “Got some hits when we needed to. Made some pitches when we needed to. Here against this ballclub, we’ll take it any way we can get it.”

(Photo of Max Muncy and Mookie Betts: Orlando Ramirez / Associated Press)

This news was originally published on this post .