The bullpen of the San Diego Padres contained the Los Angeles Dodgers throughout game two of the NLDS and evened the series with a 5-3 victory.
Dodgers’ pitcher Clayton Kershaw pitched for five innings and made six strikeouts but allowed six hits and three runs.
“I just felt like [Kershaw] wasn’t sharp, I thought it was a grind all night for him,” said Dodger general manager Dave Roberts. “Missing just a little bit of the fastball, the slider, couldn’t have a feel for it until probably that fourth, fifth inning.”
Kershaw admitted that he made mistakes that the Padres took advantage of, but also noted how things could be worse.
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“I had to pitch out of jams basically every inning,” Kershaw said. “The homer to Manny (Machado) was a mistake, the two-strike hit that [Jurickson Profar] got there was a mistake and then I left a slider up to [Juan Soto] that he got a hit on.”
For game three, Roberts noted that he will have Tony Gonsolin start on the mound.
“I feel like I’m good to go however many [innings] we need,” Gonsolin said. “Just trying to go out there and execute pitches and throw strikes and try to feel out their approach is and make the adjustments.”
Padres pitcher Yu Darvish pitched for five innings and made seven strikeouts, but allowed seven hits and three runs.
“Luckily the home runs were all solo home runs so I thought that it was nothing to be negative about,” Darvish said. “We’re in a playoff game and I think bottom line is if we win the game, it’s all good.”
The Dodgers used five pitchers in the matchup. This game marked the Dodgers’ postseason debut of Yency Almonte, who struck out three batters in one inning. He noted how trusting his own ability helped him be successful.
“Once I knew I can get a strike and I saw the strings I was getting, I knew I could just go out there and just be myself,” Almonte said. “I’m ready whenever my name is called again now that I know what to do and then go out there and pitch.”
On the third at-bat of the game, San Diego third baseman Manny Machado slugged out a homerun amid the jeers that were showered on him.
“We’re gonna compete,” Machado said. “[the Dodgers] played very well against us all year, but at the end of the day … we’re gonna go out there and leave it on the field, we’re gonna do everything possible to try to help our team win.”
Dodgers first basemen Freddie Freeman rebutted with a homer of his own in the bottom of the first. Third baseman Max Muncy slugged out a homer in the second. The Padres made hits in the third, leading to Machado scoring an RBI double and San Diego second baseman Jake Cronenworth making a sacrifice hit for an RBI.
Trea Turner hit his second homerun this series in the third inning. Three innings later, Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar made an RBI single to give them the lead. The Dodgers fell victim to a double-play at the bottom of the sixth.
The Dodgers had loaded the bases at the bottom of the seventh and catcher Will Smith was unable to send any of the batters home.
“You just look at the game and there were a couple of opportunities, two innings back-to-back that we had an opportunity, situationally, to push a run across to tie the game and potentially take the lead,” Roberts said. “We couldn’t do that.”
The Dodgers will travel to San Diego for game three of the NLDS on October 14 at 5:37P.M.
