SAN DIEGO — Gulp. Sigh. Damn. It’s happening again.
For the second time in three postseasons, the Dodgers showed up at San Diego’s Petco Park on a cool October night brimming with confidence, riding on emotion, stung by skepticism, ready for revenge.
And once again, they’re eating it.
This wipeout is not yet as spectacular as the stunning crush of two Octobers ago, but give it time.
Once again, after losing Game 3 of the National League Division Series to the San Diego Padres, 6-5, the Dodgers find themselves on the brink of an all-too-familiar fate.
The Dodgers were unable to wrestle back control of the NLDS from the San Diego Padres, who capitalized on a big second inning to take a 6-5 win in Game 3.
One more loss, and they finish a baseball-best season flat on their face.
One more loss, and more than a billion dollars is bloodied and bruised and crawling into winter.
One more loss, and the Dodgers have once again suffered the worst of fates against the worst of opponents, once again crushed by an obnoxious little brother that is everything they’re not.
Those preening, petulant, damn good San Diego Padres.
The southern rivals lead the best-of-five series two games to one, with the ending possibly — probably? — occurring Wednesday night in a Game 4 that will feature Padres ace Dylan Cease facing a bunch of Dodger relievers.
Doesn’t sound promising.
“We’ve got to win tomorrow night to then pick up the pieces for Game 5,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I don’t know how that’s going to look.”
Couldn’t look much worse than it looks now.
In a Game 3 ringing with “Beat L.A.” chants and thick with an encore energy carried over from the Game 2 maelstrom, the Padres brought the intensity while the Dodgers surrendered it.
The Padres scored six runs in the second inning against a messy Dodgers defense and that was that. With the exception of a grand slam swing by Teoscar Hernández, the Dodgers did little to engage in the battle.
They were supposed to still be furious at how the Padres had showboated their way to a Game 2 victory that incited Dodger Stadium fans into idiocy, right?
Wrong. They didn’t act mad, meekly banging out six hits against five Padres pitchers and not scoring after the third inning.
They were supposed to defend Roberts’ honor after Padre Manny Machado threw a baseball at him in Game 2, right?
Wrong. They were tentative from the moment starter Walker Buehler was assessed a pitch-clock violation while facing Machado in the second inning, Buehler eventually struggling like all Dodger starters struggle, yielding six runs in five innings.
“Yeah, not a great situation,” Roberts said.
To add insult to embarrassment, the Padres did not retaliate for the Dodger fans showering their players with bottles and baseballs in Game 2. The Padres fans were, instead, the portrait of strength and sportsmanship, roaring and waving yellow towels until finally howling themselves hoarse when Tanner Scott struck out Shohei Ohtani looking in the eighth inning to end the Dodgers’ best last chance.
Speaking of which, Ohtani struck out twice and managed just one broken-bat single in a second consecutive game during which he has appeared very human. Despite giving up his game-changing homer in Game 1, the Padres clearly aren’t afraid of Ohtani. They’re not afraid of anybody.
But, still, more has been expected of Superman.
“I think that the moment is certainly not getting too big for him,” said Roberts, defending his star. ”I think they’re making some good pitches. Obviously he had a good Game 1 and was kept somewhat at bay... I think that he’s still in a good place. He’ll be ready to hit a mistake.”
So the greatest player in baseball history is now a mistake hitter? The Dodgers’ immediate future really has gotten unruly.
And to think, the game began with a home run from — you’re not going to believe this — Mookie Betts! This was a guy who was 0 for 6 in this series and three for 44 dating back 12 playoff games, a guy who had a homer stolen by Jurickson Profar in Game 2, a guy who thought it had happened again Tuesday when Profar dove into the left-field corner stands again.
San Diego Padres fans have embraced the “Beat L.A.” chant with great enthusiasm ahead of the team’s NLDS showdowns with the Dodgers on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Betts was so sure Profar had stolen another one, he headed toward the dugout before reaching second base when Profar came up empty-handed and the blast became a reality.
It was the Dodgers’ only real nice surprise of the night. The Dodgers appeared to lose this instant mojo before the bottom of the second inning even began with that pitch-clock violation, and it only got worse.
Machado singled up the middle, then forced an error when he ran inside the baseline on a grounder to Freddie Freeman and Freeman’s throw to second glanced off his helmet and into left field, setting the stage for a Xander Bogaerts grounder that Miguel Rojas caught but stumbled attempting to start a double play, allowing a run to score.
Then David Peralta doubled down the right-field line to score two runs, a Kyle Higashioka fly ball scored another run, then Fernando Tatis Jr. crushed a home run to deep left field to make it six runs.
“There were just balls that we just didn’t convert into outs. And it builds the stress in the inning,” said Roberts, later adding, “When you give a good team extra outs it’s hard to throw up zeros.”
Trailing 6-1, the Dodgers appeared beaten almost before the game started, and even Hernández’s third-inning granny couldn’t change that.
So here the Dodgers sit again, on the precipice of massive failure, in the same place they were in 2022 when they lost this series to the Padres in four games, and nearly the same place they were last season when they were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“As far as kind of winning a ball game tomorrow, I think we’re in a really good spot,” said the ever optimistic Roberts.
For Dodger fans still waiting for their first full-season championship in 36 years, it’s never looked worse.
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