What you need to know
Dodgers move to the brink of playoff elimination in Game 3 loss
Walker Buehler repays Dave Roberts for having faith in him
Teoscar Hernández rescues Dodgers with grand slam
Dodgers fail to wrestle momentum back from Padres, lose in NLDS Game 3
SAN DIEGO — In the run-up to this week’s National League Division Series, it was the quietest player on the Dodgers roster who delivered the most profound speech.
This series, soft-spoken veteran Chris Taylor told his teammates in a hitter’s meeting before Game 1 on Saturday, would be all about intensity.
“Every time we play these guys, they always have high intensity and a lot of energy,” Taylor said of the San Diego Padres, recounting the message of his address to a reporter a day later. So, he implored the club, “We need to match that.”
Entering Game 3 on Tuesday, the bar to do so had reached the stratosphere.
Over the previous 48 hours, the psychological dynamic of this rivalry matchup dramatically shifted.
Dodgers move to the brink of playoff elimination with 6-5 loss to Padres
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — FINAL
Top of the ninth: Robert Suarez took over on the mound for the Padres and struck out Max Muncy. Will Smith then grounded out to short before Gavin Lux struck out to end the game.
The Padres lead the best-of-five National League Division Series 2-1 heading into Game 4 on Wednesday at 6:08 p.m. at Petco Park.
Top of the Dodgers’ order stifled by Padres in eighth inning
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — End of the eighth inning
Top of the eighth: Padres reliever Tanner Scott struck out Shohei Ohtani (his second strikeout tonight) and Mookie Betts flied out to center. Freddie Freeman followed with a single to center. Pinch-runner Chris Taylor entered the game for Freeman, who was limping when he ran to first.
Teoscar Hernández popped out to first for the third out.
Bottom of the eighth: Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech got Manny Machado to pop out before striking out Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts.
Dodgers still trail by a run heading into the eighth inning
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — End of the seventh inning
Top of the seventh: Facing Padres reliever Jason Adam, the Dodgers went down in order. Gavin Lux and Tommy Edman grounded out and Andy Pages struck out.
Bottom of the seventh: After Luiz Arraez flied out to lead off, Daniel Hudson took over on the mound for Anthony Banda. Fernando Tatis Jr. flied out to the warning track in center field and Jurickson Profar also popped out to center.
Anthony Banda takes over in relief of Walker Buehler
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — End of the sixth inning
Top of the sixth: Padres reliever Jeremiah Estrada retired the Dodgers in order. Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy struck out and Will Smith grounded out.
Bottom of the sixth: Anthony Banda took over in relief of Walker Buehler for the Dodgers. He struck out David Peralta and Jake Cronenworth and Kyle Higashioka lined out.
Walker Buehler repays Dave Roberts’ faith by getting out of inning
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — End of the fifth inning
Top of the fifth: Shohei Ohtani flied out to the warning track. Mookie Betts grounded out to short, with Xander Bogaerts making an impressive grab on a late one-hopper. Freddie Freeman flied out to left field to cap the frame.
Bottom of the fifth: Manny Machado hit a two-out single to left field off Walker Buehler, prompting a mound visit from manager Dave Roberts, who lets him stay in the game.
A wild pitch from Buehler allowed Machado to take second base. The Dodgers intentionally walked Jackson Merrill to get to Bogaerts, who grounded into a force out at second.
Buehler’s night is over after 77 pitches. The left-hander gave up six runs on seven hits and walked one, but he bounced back nicely after a disastrous second inning.
Walker Buehler makes it through another inning
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — End of the fourth inning
Top of the fourth inning: Dodgers go down in order. Gavin Lux flied out, Tommy Edman grounded out and Andy Pages flied out.
Bottom of the fourth: Jake Cronenworth singled to left field off Walker Buehler. Kyle Higashioka lined into a force out at second base before Luis Arraez hit into a double play to end the inning.
However, Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman have to jump to catch Tommy Edman’s throw and came down awkwardly on his already sore ankle. He walked gingerly to the dugout after the play. Freeman batted in the fifth inning and appeared to be OK.
Teoscar Hernández grand slam rescues Dodgers in dramatic fashion
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 5 — End of the third inning
Top of the third inning: Miguel Rojas, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts each singled to load the bases. After Betts’ single, Rojas limped off with an apparent leg injury while running to third. Andy Pages replaced him on third base.
Freddie Freeman lined out to Jurickson Profar to left, but the ball was hit too hard for Pages to score.
Teoscar Hernández then launched a grand slam off Michael King on a blast to center field, thrusting the Dodgers right back into the game.
Bottom of the third: It was a 1-2-3 inning for Walker Buehler. Jackson Merrill flied out and Xander Bogaerts and David Peralta grounded out.
Dodgers disaster in the second inning gives Padres 6-1 lead
⚾ Padres 6, Dodgers 1 — End of the second inning
Top of the second: Will Smith struck out, Gavin Lux grounded out and Tommy Edman grounded out in a seven-pitch inning for Michael King.
Bottom of the second: Manny Machado hit a leadoff single to center field off Walker Buehler.
Disaster then struck for the Dodgers. Freddie Freeman fielded a grounder from Jackson Merrill and tried to start a double play, throwing from his knees. But his throw hit Machado — who moved far inside in an attempt to block the ball — and the ball ricocheted into left field, putting runners on the corners with no outs.
The Padres tied the game when Xander Bogaerts hit a grounder to Miguel Rojas at short, who failed to beat Merrill to second. Rojas’ throw to first was too late to get Bogaerts at first, and Machado scored from third.
Former Dodger David Peralta followed with a two-run double down the right-field line to give the Padres the lead.
With the crowd noise forcing Buehler to constantly put his glove up to his ear in order to pick up Pitchcom audio, the left-hander gave up a single to Jake Cronenworth. Kyle Higashioka then drove in Peralta on a sacrifice fly to center. Luis Arraez popped out for the second out.
Fernando Tatis Jr. then crushed a two-run home run to center field to give San Diego a 6-1 lead.
After Buehler gave up a single to Jurickson Profar, the inning mercifully ended for the Dodgers when Machado, in his second at-bat of the inning, flied out.
Dodgers take lead on Mookie Betts solo home run
⚾ Dodgers 1, Padres 0 — End of the first inning
Top of the first: San Diego right-handed starter Michael King struck out Shohei Ohtani. Mookie Betts followed with a home run into the left-field corner of Petco Park that went off the glove of Jurickson Profar in a play eerily similar to what happened in Game 2 when Profar robbed Betts of a homer.
For a moment, Betts thought Profar caught the ball before realizing it was a home run.
Betts was peppered with questions about his struggles in the postseason after the Dodgers’ Game 2 loss, and manager Dave Roberts said he talked to Betts on Monday in an effort to get him back on track.
Freddie Freeman flied out to right and Teoscar Hernández drew a walk before Max Muncy grounded out to cap the frame.
Bottom of the first: It was a solid start for Dodgers starter Walker Buehler, who oversaw a 1-2-3 inning. Luis Arraez flied out, Fernando Tatis Jr. grounded out and Profar popped out.
Dave Roberts gets booed during Game 3 introductions
Dave Roberts played for and later coached for the San Diego Padres, but a lot has changed over the last decade (and in the last 24 hours).
Roberts was heartily booed by the “Beat L.A.” contingent at Petco Park during team introductions before Game 3 of the NLDS on Tuesday.
The reaction isn’t too surprising in the wake of Roberts questioning Manny Machado’s motives when the Padres third baseman threw a ball into the Dodgers’ dugout during Game 2 on Sunday.
Walker Buehler robbed of luxury watch at Santa Anita Park last month
Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler was robbed of a watch while he was attending the California Crown with his wife last month at Santa Anita Park, according to his agent.
The Arcadia Police Department said in a statement Tuesday that three individuals were separately robbed of their watches during the first-year event at the racetrack on Sept. 28. A statement Tuesday from Excel Sports Management, which represents Buehler, confirms that the two-time All-Star was one of those victims.
Padres manager Mike Shildt defends Manny Machado, throws shade at Dave Roberts
A day after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts questioned whether Manny Machado had purposely thrown a ball his direction during Game 2 of the NLDS, Padres manager Mike Shildt responded with a full-throated defense of his superstar third baseman — and a thinly veiled shot at Roberts too.
Asked Tuesday afternoon whether he thought Machado had been trying to hit Roberts with his now infamous throw between innings in Game 2, Shildt said he had “zero” belief that was Machado’s intention.
“I don’t think there was any intent at all with that,” Shildt added, before smirking and referencing the game-ending triple-play Machado executed against the Dodgers last month. “Manny has exceptional arm talent. I think he proved that on the triple play.”
Shildt was also asked for his reaction to Roberts’ comments Monday about the situation, in which Roberts called Machado’s throw “unsettling” and, had he been targeting Roberts on purpose, “disrespectful.”
“I come from maybe just a different philosophy of dealing with this,” Shildt started, before later adding, “I got into this game to help players get the most out of their God-given ability and to compete on the field and respect the opponent. I’m not, nor will I ever, disparage another player on another team, especially anybody I’ve managed in the past.”
Roberts managed Machado for the second half of the 2018 season, after the Dodgers acquired him at the trade deadline.
“That’s not how I want to operate,” Shildt added.
Roberts said he had no comment when asked to respond to Shildt’s quote in his pregame news conference later in the afternoon.
While MLB requested video of the incident from the Dodgers — Machado’s throw at the dugout wasn’t caught on Fox broadcast cameras— the league is not expected to discipline anyone for anything that happened in Game 2 of the series, as The Times’ Bill Shaikin reported.
While the situation dominated conversation at the ballpark during Monday’s off-day workouts, players from both teams talked about moving on before Game 3.
“I think we’re all past that,” Padres center field Jackson Merrill said. “We’re ready to move on and play baseball today.”
“We’ve got to focus on ourselves, like I’ve been saying,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy echoed. “It’s one of those things where it is what it is. It happened. We move on and we’re ready to go out there and play our game tonight.”
Did Dodgers fans motivate Padres to win Game 2? ‘Yeah, maybe it fired us up’
If the intent of the Dodgers fans who threw two baseballs at San Diego Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar and a water bottle, beer can and other debris at right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. during a lengthy seventh-inning delay was to intimidate the visiting team on Sunday night, it backfired spectacularly.
“I mean, we scored, what, six runs after that? Five? Four? I don’t know,” Padres third baseman Manny Machado said with a grin. “It was six? Yeah, maybe it fired us up.”
The Padres held a three-run lead in Game 2 of the National League Division Series when play was halted and umpires worked with stadium security officials to lower the temperature among several unruly fans in the left-field and right-field corners.
Dave Roberts wants struggling Mookie Betts to embrace a different mindset
SAN DIEGO — Playoff baseball is stressful enough without feeling like you’re letting your team and an entire fan base down with every empty at-bat, which is why Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled right fielder Mookie Betts aside for a little chat during Monday’s off-day workout in Petco Park.
Betts struck out, grounded out and walked three times — two of them intentional — in Saturday night’s National League Division Series-opening 7-5 win over the San Diego Padres in Dodger Stadium, and he was hitless with a strikeout in four at-bats in Sunday night’s 10-2 Game 2 loss.
The veteran right fielder who starred on both sides of the ball during the team’s run to the 2020 World Series title. is now three for 44 (.068) in his last 12 playoff games dating to Game 4 of the 2021 NL Championship Series, including an 0-for-11 collar in last season’s three-game NLDS sweep at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
How ‘Beat L.A.’ became entrenched in the Dodgers-Padres rivalry lexicon
SAN DIEGO — I walked into the Dodgers’ team store the other day and asked whether I could buy any “Beat SD” merchandise. Of course not.
I walked into the San Diego Padres’ team store Monday. I did not have to ask whether I could buy any “Beat L.A.” merchandise.
The rack of “Beat L.A.” shirts stared me in the face as soon as I entered the store. There are no other words on the shirt: nothing about San Diego, or the Padres. It is a rallying cry at Petco Park, but it is also a civic mission statement.
Dodgers fans lose their cool and Dodgers lose their edge in series-tying debacle
Two baseballs flew down toward the San Diego Padres’ Jurickson Profar from the left-field corner stands, the gutless moves of two cowards.
Numerous water bottles flew down toward the Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. from the right-field corner stands, the gutless moves of many cowards.
More than a game was lost Sunday night when the Padres equaled the National League Division Series at one game apiece with a 10-2 victory over the Dodgers.
An already tattered image was further damaged. A historically bad reputation was further stained. Anyone out there walking around town wearing a Dodgers jersey today should be embarrassed.
Dodgers need Mookie Betts to snap out of his years-long postseason slump
The scene in the locker room on Sunday night was reminiscent of this time last year.
Mookie Betts exhaled.
He stared down at the carpet and ran his hand over his cleanly shaven head.
“I don’t really know what to say, bro,” he said.
In the wake of a 10-2 defeat on Sunday night, the Dodgers are tied with the San Diego Padres in their National League Division Series at one game apiece.
Betts is hitless in six at-bats.
He said of his at-bats in the first two games of this best-of-five series, “They’re all outs, so all terrible.”
Freddie Freeman in the starting lineup for Game 3
Dodgers first baseman was penciled into the starting lineup for Tuesday’s Game 3 of the NLDS at Petco Park.
“It’s a go, as of now,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game. “Unless I hear otherwise he’s going to be in there.”
Freeman, who was pulled from Sunday night’s game in the sixth inning because of right-ankle discomfort, received treatment on Monday and did not practice with the team on the field Monday night.
Roberts said Monday that he might rest Freeman in Game 4 if the Padres start left-hander Martin Perez.
Roberts added he has given no thought to taking Freeman off the NLDS roster, a move that would prevent Freeman from playing in the NL Championship Series if the Dodgers advance.
Also, MLB announced that right-hander Ben Casparius is taking right-hander Michael Grove’s place on the Dodgers NLDS roster as an injury replacement. Roberts said Tuesday that Grove has been dealing with right shoulder pain.
NLDS rewind: Jurickson Profar set tone for Padres in NLDS Game 2 win
The home run music started blaring through the Dodger Stadium speakers. Mookie Betts began rounding the bases and pointing toward the bullpen.
Just like the previous night, it appeared the Dodgers had erased an early deficit on the back of one of their superstar players.
Only then, however, did the 54,119 people at Chavez Ravine realize that Jurickson Profar had made a spectacular, tone-setting play instead.
If Shohei Ohtani’s score-tying homer in Game 1 of the National League Division Series on Saturday night energized the Dodgers in a comeback victory, then Profar’s first-inning robbery of Betts in Game 2 did the exact opposite — frustrating the Dodgers, and what later became an unruly crowd, in an emotionally charged 10-2 San Diego Padres win that evened the NLDS at one game a piece.
Fans were ejected, but no arrests were made during Game 2 at Dodger Stadium
Fans bounded onto the field, threw balls and water bottles at players and possibly took a few swings at one another at Dodger Stadium this weekend.
None of these antics, however, led to any arrests, according to police.
The Dodgers clinched a 7-5 win in their first game against the San Diego Padres on Saturday, but on Sunday they suffered a lopsided 10-2 defeat, tying the National League Division Series at one game apiece. The first team to win three games will advance to the National League Championship Series, while the other begins an extended vacation.
At least two fans were ejected from Saturday’s game after they made their way onto left field. Stadium security walked the men with their arms bound behind their backs as fans in the stands booed and jeered, according to video shared on social media.
‘Unsettling’: Dodgers manager Dave Roberts questions Manny Machado’s throw
SAN DIEGO — During Game 2 of the National League Division Series on Sunday night, San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado threw a ball toward the Dodgers dugout between innings that almost hit manager Dave Roberts.
Roberts told reporters Monday he didn’t notice the throw at the time but later saw a video of the incident, calling it “unsettling.”
“I don’t know his intent. I don’t want to speak for him,” Roberts said. “But I did see the video. And the ball was directed at me with something behind it.”
The sequence took place before the bottom of the sixth inning, after Dodgers starting pitcher Jack Flaherty struck out Machado the half-inning before and shouted expletives toward the Padres star on his way back to the dugout.
Dodgers vs. Padres: How to watch and betting odds for Game 3
The Dodgers continue the postseason Tuesday when they face the San Diego Padres in Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park in San Diego. The game is scheduled to start at 6:08 p.m. PDT and will air on FS1 and Fox Deportes. Radio broadcasts of the game will be on 570 AM and 1020 AM (Español) in the Los Angeles area.
Here are the betting odds for Game 3:
Here’s the TV schedule for the remaining games in the best-of-five series (all times Pacific):
Wednesday: Game 4 — Dodgers at San Diego, 6:08 p.m. | FS1
*Friday: Game 5 — San Diego at Dodgers | 5:08 p.m. | Fox
*—if necessary