Author: Rowan Kavner

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LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers intentionally walked Francisco Lindor in the second inning Monday afternoon, the 24-year-old hitting behind the Mets‘ MVP candidate looked perplexed. Mark Vientos raised his sunglasses and tipped his head to the side, almost in disbelief that they wanted to pitch to him. 

“I took it personal,” Vientos said after launching the second grand slam of the Mets’ postseason in a 7-3 win that evened the National League Championship Series at one game apiece. 

If the Dodgers didn’t know much earlier this year about the Mets third baseman, who was 10 games into his 2024 season the last time these teams faced off in the regular season, they do now.

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“I mean, I want to be up there during that at-bat,” Vientos continued. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, put me up there.” 

Vientos, now a fixture hitting near the top of the Mets’ lineup, wasn’t even the likeliest 24-year-old to earn his team’s job at the hot corner this year. The 2017 second-round pick’s season began at Syracuse, and he sported a .610 OPS over parts of two big-league seasons entering this year. 

But this version of Vientos, who made the Dodgers pay for the free pass, is not like previous iterations. 

“My man’s got a lot of confidence in himself,” Sean Manaea said. “I love that.”

Why wouldn’t he? 

On Monday, Vientos’ blast gifted the Mets starter an early 6-0 lead that provided plenty of cushion during his five innings of work. 

“Ever since he got here,” Manaea continued, “he’s been doing some crazy things.” 

When the season began, Brett Baty was the Mets’ starting third baseman. But the former top prospect’s struggles out of the gate opened a door, and Vientos, who was recalled on May 15, stepped through with a giant leap. By the time Baty was optioned on May 31, it was clear the full-time third-base job belonged to Vientos, who never looked back. 

While his name might not hold the same weight or prestige as perennial third base sensations like Manny Machado or Alex Bregman, Vientos finished the season with a higher wRC+ than both of them. In fact, among MLB third basemen with at least 400 plate appearances this season, the only ones with a higher OPS than Vientos were José Ramírez and Rafael Devers. 

“The power is real,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. 

It is not a coincidence that his ascension coincided with his team’s. 

From Vientos’ call-up through the end of the year, New York was one of three teams to compile 70 wins. His steady rise both in production and the Mets’ lineup — he went from hitting in the bottom half of the order in June to behind Lindor in September — helped turn around a team that was 11 games under .500 in early June. 

In regular-season games Vientos started this year, the Mets were 61-44. In games he didn’t, they were 28-29. 

“He’s embracing every opportunity and enjoying the ride,” Lindor said. “There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, that’s confidence.”

Lindor is the only Mets player worth more WAR than Vientos. They both had exactly 26 home runs from the time Vientos was promoted in mid-May through the end of the year.  

Now, they’ve both come up huge through the team’s magical October run. 

For Lindor, there was the game-winning ninth-inning homer he launched against the rival Braves to get them into the playoffs and the go-ahead grand slam in Philadelphia that would send the Mets through the NLDS to face the Dodgers. 

When the Mets seemed to forget who they were in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, getting blanked for the first time this postseason and looking uncompetitive in the process, Lindor got them back on business hours in Monday’s matinee with a leadoff home run that ended the Dodgers’ postseason record-tying streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 33. 

So, you can’t blame them for giving Lindor a free base with two on, two out and a bullpen game threatening to get out of hand quickly. 

Unless, of course, you’re Vientos.

“They would rather take a chance on me than him,” Vientos said. “But I use it as motivation. I’m like, ‘All right, you want me up, I’m going to show you.'”

In a postseason field filled with decorated stars, that self-belief is helping a less-heralded Met stand out. 

In the Mets’ first game of the playoffs, it was Vientos’ single off Aaron Ashby in the fifth inning that broke a tie and ended up being the deciding hit. 

In their first game of the NLDS, Vientos’ game-tying single in the eighth inning sparked a five-run frame in a comeback win.

In Game 2 of the NLDS, Vientos became the third-youngest player to record 10 total bases in a playoff game. 

On Monday, he became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in LCS history. Vientos would add a single in his next at-bat for his sixth multi-hit game in nine postseason appearances. 

He now leads all players this October in hits and RBIs. 

“He’s very confident,” Lindor repeated. “He’s a player who believes in himself. He doesn’t back down.”

Despite the self-assuredness and swagger, Vientos has still demonstrated preternatural poise to consistently deliver when presented opportunities. 

On his grand slam, Vientos said he wasn’t thinking about going deep. But when Landon Knack lofted a four-seamer right down the middle on the ninth pitch of the at-bat? 

“Yeah,” Vientos said, “I wasn’t going to miss it.” 

As he has done to opponents so often this month, and throughout a 2024 season that has solidified his place as the third baseman of the future in New York, Vientos delivered. 

While his 391-foot drive would have been a flyout at Citi Field and 23 other major-league ballparks, all that mattered was at Dodger Stadium, it kept going, and going and going … until it dropped over the wall in right-center field, lifting a Mets team that had found its form again and dismantling the Dodgers’ hopes early in a bullpen game. 

“You didn’t see a big swing,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was, let me put it in play, let me stay in the big part of the ballpark, and he was able to drive that one. You see the next at-bat against a lefty, just going the other way with ease and just shoot the ball the other way. That’s a sign of not only a good hitter but someone that is mature and is under control.”

The Mets have demonstrated all year they’re not going to fold. 

In Game 2, after their worst loss of the postseason, they punched back behind their MVP candidate and the 24-year-old behind him who’s playing like one. 

“That’s who he is,” Lindor said. “I’m glad he took it personal. He’s got to continue to climb.” 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]

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LOS ANGELES — After the Dodgers intentionally walked Francisco Lindor in the second inning Monday afternoon, the 24-year-old hitting behind the Mets‘ MVP candidate looked perplexed. Mark Vientos raised his sunglasses and tipped his head to the side, almost in disbelief that they wanted to pitch to him. 

“I took it personal,” Vientos said after launching the second grand slam of the Mets’ postseason in a 7-3 win that evened the National League Championship Series at one game apiece. 

If the Dodgers didn’t know much earlier this year about the Mets third baseman, who was 10 games into his 2024 season the last time these teams faced off in the regular season, they do now.

–>

“I mean, I want to be up there during that at-bat,” Vientos continued. “I want them to walk Lindor in that situation, put me up there.” 

Vientos, now a fixture hitting near the top of the Mets’ lineup, wasn’t even the likeliest 24-year-old to earn his team’s job at the hot corner this year. The 2017 second-round pick’s season began at Syracuse, and he sported a .610 OPS over parts of two big-league seasons entering this year. 

But this version of Vientos, who made the Dodgers pay for the free pass, is not like previous iterations. 

“My man’s got a lot of confidence in himself,” Sean Manaea said. “I love that.”

Why wouldn’t he? 

On Monday, Vientos’ blast gifted the Mets starter an early 6-0 lead that provided plenty of cushion during his five innings of work. 

“Ever since he got here,” Manaea continued, “he’s been doing some crazy things.” 

When the season began, Brett Baty was the Mets’ starting third baseman. But the former top prospect’s struggles out of the gate opened a door, and Vientos, who was recalled on May 15, stepped through with a giant leap. By the time Baty was optioned on May 31, it was clear the full-time third-base job belonged to Vientos, who never looked back. 

While his name might not hold the same weight or prestige as perennial third base sensations like Manny Machado or Alex Bregman, Vientos finished the season with a higher wRC+ than both of them. In fact, among MLB third basemen with at least 400 plate appearances this season, the only ones with a higher OPS than Vientos were José Ramírez and Rafael Devers. 

“The power is real,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. 

It is not a coincidence that his ascension coincided with his team’s. 

From Vientos’ call-up through the end of the year, New York was one of three teams to compile 70 wins. His steady rise both in production and the Mets’ lineup — he went from hitting in the bottom half of the order in June to behind Lindor in September — helped turn around a team that was 11 games under .500 in early June. 

In regular-season games Vientos started this year, the Mets were 61-44. In games he didn’t, they were 28-29. 

“He’s embracing every opportunity and enjoying the ride,” Lindor said. “There’s one thing that Mark doesn’t lack, that’s confidence.”

Lindor is the only Mets player worth more WAR than Vientos. They both had exactly 26 home runs from the time Vientos was promoted in mid-May through the end of the year.  

Now, they’ve both come up huge through the team’s magical October run. 

For Lindor, there was the game-winning ninth-inning homer he launched against the rival Braves to get them into the playoffs and the go-ahead grand slam in Philadelphia that would send the Mets through the NLDS to face the Dodgers. 

When the Mets seemed to forget who they were in Game 1 at Dodger Stadium, getting blanked for the first time this postseason and looking uncompetitive in the process, Lindor got them back on business hours in Monday’s matinee with a leadoff home run that ended the Dodgers’ postseason record-tying streak of consecutive scoreless innings at 33. 

So, you can’t blame them for giving Lindor a free base with two on, two out and a bullpen game threatening to get out of hand quickly. 

Unless, of course, you’re Vientos.

“They would rather take a chance on me than him,” Vientos said. “But I use it as motivation. I’m like, ‘All right, you want me up, I’m going to show you.'”

In a postseason field filled with decorated stars, that self-belief is helping a less-heralded Met stand out. 

In the Mets’ first game of the playoffs, it was Vientos’ single off Aaron Ashby in the fifth inning that broke a tie and ended up being the deciding hit. 

In their first game of the NLDS, Vientos’ game-tying single in the eighth inning sparked a five-run frame in a comeback win.

In Game 2 of the NLDS, Vientos became the third-youngest player to record 10 total bases in a playoff game. 

On Monday, he became the youngest player to hit a grand slam in LCS history. Vientos would add a single in his next at-bat for his sixth multi-hit game in nine postseason appearances. 

He now leads all players this October in hits and RBIs. 

“He’s very confident,” Lindor repeated. “He’s a player who believes in himself. He doesn’t back down.”

Despite the self-assuredness and swagger, Vientos has still demonstrated preternatural poise to consistently deliver when presented opportunities. 

On his grand slam, Vientos said he wasn’t thinking about going deep. But when Landon Knack lofted a four-seamer right down the middle on the ninth pitch of the at-bat? 

“Yeah,” Vientos said, “I wasn’t going to miss it.” 

As he has done to opponents so often this month, and throughout a 2024 season that has solidified his place as the third baseman of the future in New York, Vientos delivered. 

While his 391-foot drive would have been a flyout at Citi Field and 23 other major-league ballparks, all that mattered was at Dodger Stadium, it kept going, and going and going … until it dropped over the wall in right-center field, lifting a Mets team that had found its form again and dismantling the Dodgers’ hopes early in a bullpen game. 

“You didn’t see a big swing,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “It was, let me put it in play, let me stay in the big part of the ballpark, and he was able to drive that one. You see the next at-bat against a lefty, just going the other way with ease and just shoot the ball the other way. That’s a sign of not only a good hitter but someone that is mature and is under control.”

The Mets have demonstrated all year they’re not going to fold. 

In Game 2, after their worst loss of the postseason, they punched back behind their MVP candidate and the 24-year-old behind him who’s playing like one. 

“That’s who he is,” Lindor said. “I’m glad he took it personal. He’s got to continue to climb.” 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

[Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.]

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LOS ANGELES — Before Jack Flaherty took the mound Sunday night, he noticed his mom taking her seat behind home plate. In the crowd, a group of his lifelong friends from Sherman Oaks Little League offered their support. 

Entering his second playoff start with his childhood team, he felt at ease. 

Eleven years after the Harvard-Westlake junior fired seven scoreless innings in the Southern Section Division I championship game at Dodger Stadium, the local product was back on the same mound, doing the same thing, only with considerably different stakes and circumstances. 

Instead of delivering his high school team a championship, Flaherty was orchestrating the most consequential victory of his eight-year big-league career with seven shutout frames in the Dodgers‘ 9-0 victory to begin the National League Championship Series against the Mets. 

“I’m sure every single one of us has done it and put ourselves in the scenario,” Flaherty said. “It’s the same thing, same game. You’ve just got to look at it as fun and try not to make things bigger than they are, not let your imagination get in the way.”

Flaherty’s Game 1 gem put the Dodgers in the driver’s seat of the series, ensuring there wouldn’t be an emotional letdown coming off a spirited series against the rival Padres in which the Dodgers staved off elimination twice. It also etched his team in the record books. 

Sunday’s victory ran the Dodger pitching staff’s consecutive scoreless innings streak to 33, tied with the 1966 Orioles for the most in MLB postseason history. 

Just as important, it allowed manager Dave Roberts to save his arms. 

Given their lack of starting pitching options, the Dodgers will need to use bullpen games at some point. In a seven-game series, that can be especially taxing. 

Because of Flaherty’s work, the Dodgers can now confidently deploy their highest-leverage relievers in a Game 2 bullpen game Monday afternoon. With an off day Tuesday, their relievers can then reset, with Walker Buehler and Yoshinobu Yamamoto well-rested for Games 3 and 4 in New York. 

“Incredible,” Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech said. “We know we’re going to be relied on heavily down there in the bullpen. We don’t know exactly when that is or how it’s going to be, but we know there’s games we’re going to have to cover some innings. For him to go out there and dominate Game 1, and to only use two other arms, there’s not really words for it.”

The past two years, the Dodgers have been uncharacteristically deprived of starting pitching in October. It doomed them in 2023. This year, the pitching staff has made it work. 

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In a do-or-die Game 4 in San Diego, it was eight relievers who cobbled together a shutout. The bullpen was crucial again in the deciding Game 5, following Yamamoto’s five scoreless innings with four more spotless frames. 

But at some point, especially in a seven-game series, the Dodgers needed length from a starter. Their prized deadline acquisition delivered. 

“This is certainly a childhood dream for him and his family,” Roberts said. “You just feel that he can handle this market, handle pitching in a playoff game, starting a playoff game.” 

In the hours and days leading up to the trade deadline, the Dodgers had some back-and-forth with Detroit about Flaherty before moving on to other fronts, thinking the Tigers would go in a different direction. With less than an hour to go, Detroit got back to the Los Angeles front office. The Dodgers got the frontline starter they coveted. 

At that point, they figured Flaherty would be additive to their postseason rotation. Instead, with Tyler Glasnow and Gavin Stone out for the year, he has become essential. 

Prior to Flaherty’s masterpiece, the Dodgers had not gotten even six innings from a starting pitcher in their previous 20 playoff games. The last one to do it was Max Scherzer in Game 3 of the 2021 NLDS. That year, the Dodgers also staved off elimination against a division foe by winning back-to-back do-or-die games in the NLDS to advance. But they had also exhausted all their energy battling back. They followed by dropping the first two games of the NLCS to the Braves.

On Sunday, Flaherty’s pristine work provided a more auspicious start to the NLCS, fulfilling a childhood dream in the process. 

“I usually have been able to keep it together no matter what, even if it’s the end of an outing,” Flaherty said.

This time, with 53,503 fans from his favorite childhood team giving him a standing ovation?

“Yeah,” Flaherty admitted, “it’s hard not to smile there.” 

If he was trying to stay grounded for his second playoff start with the Dodgers on Sunday, the familiar sights in the crowd helped. 

Flaherty grew up going to Dodgers games, sitting in the reserve level with his mother, Eileen. In 2015, then in pro ball in the Cardinals’ system, the first-round pick got back to Dodger Stadium to see the NLDS with his little brother. He was there when Chase Utley fractured Ruben Tejada’s leg on a hard slide, and he was there the night prior, when Jacob deGrom fired seven scoreless innings. 

Nine years later, Flaherty delivered the same type of performance. 

Max Muncy spotted him an early lead with a two-run double in the first inning, bringing a hobbled Freddie Freeman home from second base. The first baseman had a smile on his face as he touched home plate with his good foot. Sliding can create problems for his sprained right ankle, and so can stopping abruptly, so instead, he ran into the arms of a waiting Mookie Betts to slow his speed. 

The Dodgers continued to pile on with a Shohei Ohtani RBI single in the second. They jumped all over Kodai Senga, who had no control. By the time they tacked on three more in the fourth inning, it was a rout. 

Flaherty thought he had tried to do too much the past couple of times out. In front of friends and family, he felt relaxed. His defense was flawless behind him. The Mets mustered just four baserunners against him and did not help themselves when they got their few chances. Their best came at the start of the fifth inning, when they got two singles off Flaherty to start the frame only for Jesse Winker to run into an out at third base. 

Flaherty then retired the last eight batters he faced.  The Dodgers have now outscored their opponents 23-0 since the Padres plated six runs against them in Game 3 of the NLDS. 

“It was just a pitching clinic,” Roberts said. 

On Flaherty’s walk back to the dugout after his 98 pitches, Ohtani waited to slap his hand from the top step. Roberts gave the pitcher a hug. So did one of his childhood idols. 

That game Flaherty attended in 2015, when deGrom threw seven shutout innings? It came against Clayton Kershaw, who struck out 11 in that performance. Five years later, Kershaw struck out 13 batters in eight scoreless innings in a wild-card game against the Brewers en route to a Dodgers championship.

Kershaw’s outing in 2020 was the last time a Dodgers pitcher threw at least seven shutout innings in a playoff game — until Sunday.

“Getting a hug from him afterwards and him letting me know it was a really good job is special,” Flaherty said. “Things that you can’t make up.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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LOS ANGELES — Dave Roberts walked into the postgame press conference Friday night with a cigar clutched between his fingers, his voice hoarse from the revelry. As a player in 2004, his series-flipping steal helped the Red Sox overcome a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series en route to winning a World Series. As a manager in the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, his Dodgers overcame a 3-1 deficit in the National League Championship Series against the Braves en route to snapping the franchise’s 32-year title drought. 

And yet he put this National League Division Series comeback against the Padres, which included consecutive shutout wins in elimination games and 24 consecutive scoreless innings from the Dodgers’ embattled pitching staff, in the same conversation as those successes. After losing to a lower-seeded division rival in the first round the previous two seasons, it would not happen a third time as Los Angeles knocked out San Diego 2-0 on Friday to advance to the NLCS versus the New York Mets. 

“This is right there with it,” Roberts said. “To kind of win this series how we did, to kind of fall behind — and those guys coming into the postseason had a lot of momentum — speaks to the character of our guys. This is right up there.”

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Before Game 5, Roberts told his players that he believed in this team more than any team he’d ever coached. 

“I just think that there’s a relentlessness, a refusal to lose,” Roberts said. 

Their first baseman, Freddie Freeman, was playing on one leg. Their shortstop, Miguel Rojas, left Game 3 early and never returned to the series, hindered by the torn adductor he had attempted to play through. Injuries had ravaged their starting pitching, enough that they only had one member of their Opening Day rotation still available in October. 

For many of those reasons, the Padres, who had lost the division but finished with the best second-half record in baseball, were viewed by many as the better club. Within the Dodgers’ clubhouse, a mantra began to form, stemming from a message Kiké Hernández delivered when the team was down 2-1. It continued to be spread throughout the clubhouse as Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” blasted through the speakers Friday night. 

“F— ’em all,” Max Muncy said. 

The one starter still standing, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, missed nearly three months with a rotator cuff strain and had thrown five innings just one time in his four regular-season starts back from injury. He got walloped by the Padres in his major-league debut in March and then again this past Saturday in Game 1 of the NLDS, enough that the Dodgers thought he might have been tipping his pitches. They attempted to clean up the issues before Game 5, when they decided to go with Yamamoto again. 

“In talking to him, you could get the sense that he wanted the ball,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. 

But the choice was not a given and was not announced until 9:31 p.m. PT the night before Game 5. They could have tabbed Jack Flaherty, their prized deadline acquisition. Or they could have used another bullpen game after it worked masterfully against the Padres two nights prior. All of their relievers were available again in another elimination game. 

But not giving Yamamoto the ball with the season on the line would have sent a bad message to the player they had just made the highest-paid pitcher in the sport.

“At the end of the day,” Roberts said, “we’re making a bet on a guy to pitch the game of his life tonight.”

Yamamoto had big-game experience in the past, both from earlier this year and his career internationally. His best outing as a major-leaguer came in the Bronx, when he held the Yankees scoreless through seven innings on June 7. The 26-year-old also pitched in the World Baseball Classic. Roberts considered pitching for Japan, and a player’s country, “the highest stakes that you can have.” 

In addition to winning the Nippon Pacific League MVP and triple crown three straight years, Yamamoto also led the Orix Buffaloes to the Japan Series three straight seasons. Last year, he faltered in a Game 1 loss in which he surrendered seven runs. He got the ball again in Game 6, with the Buffaloes down 3-2 in the series, and struck out 14 batters in a 138-pitch complete game. 

He would not need to throw nearly that many pitches to give the Dodgers exactly what they needed. 

“Yoshinobu is here to be a top-end starter,” Robertse said, “and this is his time.”

Before Yamamoto reached the top step on his final walk off the mound Friday, Roberts slapped his hand and gave him a hug. A parade of high-fives awaited in the dugout. Shohei Ohtani rubbed Yamamoto’s head and laughed. The Dodgers had made it to this point without needing a starter to step up, but at some point that had to change. They gave Yamamoto 12 years and $325 million to deliver in these situations. With the relievers behind him, they did not need eight scoreless. If he could give them even three solid innings, the Dodgers figured they could cover at least six with their bullpen. 

Instead, he provided five spotless innings of work. 

“He has a little Walker Buehler in him,” Gavin Lux said. “The bigger the game, the bigger the moment, he’s going to give it his best stuff.” 

Two years ago, the Dodgers never got this chance. 

In 2022, the Padres took care of Game 4 before the series could go back to Los Angeles. Some questionable pitching decisions doomed the Dodgers that night. Tyler Anderson was cruising when the bullpen took over. Their best reliever at the time, Evan Phillips, watched from the sideline as disaster ensued in a five-run seventh that decided the series. At one point, Yency Almonte missed a pickoff sign from the dugout in an effort to allow Alex Vesia more time to warm up. Instead, he threw a ball. Vesia, who afterward said he was already warm, then entered in the middle of the at-bat and surrendered the eventual game-winning hit. By the time Phillips pitched in the eighth and struck out the side, it was too late. Roberts got crushed for the moves, as he did in 2018 for pulling Rich Hill in the World Series and in 2019 for putting Clayton Kershaw in relief against the Nationals. 

This was both redemption and relief. 

Roberts delivered a masterclass throughout the 2024 NLDS as the Dodgers outpitched, outhit and outmanaged their opponent. 

In Game 4, the Padres’ decision to use Dylan Cease on short rest for the first time in Game 4 backfired, while Roberts’ expert precision in deploying eight relievers resulted in the biggest shutout win in Dodgers postseason history. 

In Game 5, San Diego manager Mike Shildt decided to let starter Yu Darvish keep going into the seventh in a one-run game a third time through the Dodgers’ lineup, instead of turning to one of the scariest back-end bullpens in the sport. The move proved costly. Teoscar Hernández delivered in the clutch as he has all season in Los Angeles after signing a one-year deal with the club, depositing a no-doubt shot into the left-field pavilion and giving the procession of Dodgers relievers a little breathing room. 

The first matchup between two Japanese starting pitchers in MLB playoff history did not disappoint. Through six innings, the only damage for either team came off the bat of Kiké Hernández. Roberts played the versatile position player with the season on the line because of his penchant to deliver in October. 

“It’s kind of the person, that particular moment,” Roberts said, “and you’ve got to make a bet.”

The night before the deciding Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS against the Cubs, Hernández decided to start visualizing his success. He envisioned how the next day would go, the pitchers he would face, and how he’d deliver in the clutch. He proceeded to swat three home runs the next day to send the Dodgers to the World Series. He has continued that visualization technique and is hitting .394 with six home runs in the playoffs since the start of the 2021 postseason. 

“There’s anxiety and things like that, that we go through as athletes, especially in big situations, big games, especially in October,” he said before Game 5. “And whenever you feel that little anxiety or whatever it is creep in, you just go back to visualizing yourself having success.”

On Friday, he wore a shirt before the game that read “Good Vibes Only.” Then he delivered a solo shot in the second inning, which ultimately provided Yamamoto with the only cushion he needed. 

Roberts could have let Yamamoto keep going at 63 pitches through five frames. The starter was holding his velocity and hadn’t allowed a run, while getting away with some fastballs that leaked over the plate. But he had done his job. Instead, Roberts prudently turned to Phillips, who recorded the next five outs. Vesia followed with another, as the duo struck out the side against the heart of the Padres’ order in the seventh. 

Vesia was expected to stay out for the eighth, but an injury to his side forced him out during warm-ups. No panic. Roberts turned to Michael Kopech for that frame, then Blake Treinen for the next. The bullpen did not permit a single baserunner. 

With his team on the brink, Roberts said Game 5 was as stressed as he’d been “in quite some time.” He didn’t show it, pushing all the right buttons. 

Roberts has now won six of his eight winner-take-all matchups. 

“I thought he was surgical in Game 4 and in Game 5,” Friedman said. “I thought he had the right feel and pulse for when to make a move and who to go to.” 

The result was the Dodgers’ first postseason series clinch at Dodger Stadium since 2013, not including wild-card games. In 2020, their run to the World Series came in a bubble in Texas. While they won it all that year, many of their players have expressed a desire to win a full-season championship so they can celebrate it with fans. 

On Friday, facing a division rival that had been the hottest team in baseball for the past four months, the Dodgers’ clutch supporting players, along with their maligned pitching staff and manager, got them one step closer. 

“We know who we are,” Muncy said. “We’re the f—ing best team in baseball, and we’re out there to prove it.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night, one of Major League Baseball’s best home-field advantages was fulfilling its reputation. Every Game 3 miscue from the Dodgers seemed to invite another. It felt like Petco Park was suffocating the opponent. Twenty-four hours later, another record crowd filled the seats, expecting to continue the celebration. One win away from slaying the dragon to the north again in the National League Division Series, Padres fans were ready to party like it was 2022. 

Instead, they were never given a reason. 

Mookie Betts helped make sure of it, emerging from his postseason doldrums and finding his self-belief again in an 8-0 win that saved the Dodgers’ season. 

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“My teammates did an amazing job trying to put confidence, instill confidence in me,” Betts said. “I had to turn off all social media because that was all negative, and I had to get some positive vibes in me.”

Lately, they had been hard to come by.

Betts entered this week hitless in his past 22 postseason at-bats and 2-for-31 dating back to the start of the 2022 NLDS. In that time, the Dodgers were 2-7 in playoff games. 

In the midst of the drought, Betts’ teammates tried to keep his spirits up. To remind the eight-time All-Star of who he is. 

“Mook’s our guy,” Max Muncy said. “He’s one of our leaders. He’s still one of the best players in baseball. I know he gets a little bit overshadowed because we’ve got Shohei Ohtani, but [Betts] is still getting paid $400 million, too. He is one of the best players in baseball, and he’s been one of the best players in the postseason. I know his last two years haven’t shown that, but I mean, c’mon, look at what he’s done in the past. He can still do it.” 

In 2018, Betts helped guide the Red Sox to a World Series championship in an MVP season. Two years later, in his first week with the Dodgers, on the first day of full-squad spring training workouts, Betts challenged his new teammates to be more accountable for their effort and to treat every practice rep like it was the World Series. The speech set the tone for another championship season.  

During the Dodgers’ 2020 short-season title run, Betts had an .871 playoff OPS in the playoffs and tallied four extra-base hits in the World Series, including a home run in the deciding Game 6. The following year, he hit .458 in the NLDS against the Giants and finished the series with a four-hit performance in a do-or-die Game 5 that helped propel the Dodgers forward. Their road ended against the Braves in the National League Championship Series, where Betts’ struggles began. 

By the time he stepped to the plate in San Diego this week, Betts was in the midst of a 3-for-44 playoff slump. Nobody had to remind him. 

“I know it’s there,” Betts said. 

Manager Dave Roberts could tell it was starting to seep into Betts’ psyche at the plate. 

“It’s up to all of us to make sure that he’s in a good headspace to go out there and compete and not get too worried about each particular at-bat,” Roberts said. 

Muncy, and others, have tried to play their part. 

“When they walk Sho to pitch to him, when he gets a big hit, I tell him, I say, ‘Hey, you get paid $400 [million] too, bro,'” Muncy said. “‘You’re getting paid $400 [million] too. You’re still one of the best players.’ Sometimes, you’ve just got to get reminded of it.” 

For a few seconds Sunday at Dodger Stadium, Betts appeared to turn a corner. 

In the first inning of Game 2, he lifted a deep drive that carried 354 feet to left field. It would have been a home run in 19 ballparks. Fooled by Jurickson Profar’s histrionics, it was not until Betts was halfway between second and third base that he realized Profar had secured the catch. Betts would go hitless the rest of the night and take his skid with him to San Diego.

Determined to work his way out of the slump, Betts celebrated his 32nd birthday on Monday in a batting cage, swinging hundreds and hundreds of times in San Diego on the Dodgers’ workout day before Game 3. 

“You guys just see that,” Muncy said. “We’ve seen the last month. That’s been the work and the preparation he’s had every single day.”

He hit inside. He hit outside. Rather than take time away from the grind to try to clear his head, Betts thought the only way out was through. If he turned his brain off, Betts figured, his struggles would only get worse. 

“I’ve seen him take swings where it looks great to me, and for whatever reason he just says it doesn’t feel the way it should,” Tommy Edman said. “But, he’s just got a high standard for what his swing should feel like. He’s one of the hardest workers I’ve played with.”

So, Betts continued tinkering, trying to find the right feel. 

Swing after swing after swing. 

“I don’t care about overdoing it,” Betts said. “I’d rather overdo it than not give effort. Pretty much as soon as I get to the park, I’m in the cage, and I don’t leave until I go back on the field. And I come back inside, and I hit some more. That’s what I’ve been doing.”

On Tuesday, the work finally yielded production. 

Given what had preceded Game 3, you couldn’t blame him for being incredulous when he finally broke out. 

In the first inning of the first game after the best catch of Profar’s life, Betts provided another opportunity for a robbery. It looked like a replica of his swing at Dodger Stadium. Again, Profar reached into the stands, extending his arm over the short wall at Petco Park. Betts was so sure the Padres left fielder had the ball and was trolling again that he began jogging back toward his dugout after rounding first. He was near the pitcher’s mound before he realized Profar didn’t make the play. Betts darted back to the baseline and continued his home run trot. 

The game would soon unravel on the Dodgers. A Teoscar Hernández grand slam could not prevent them from being pushed to the brink. 

But there was an important silver lining. 

“I think I just needed to see one fall, man,” Betts said. 

He finished with a two-hit night, then another on Wednesday. 

“It’s kind of like a hit here, a hit there, they build that momentum and keep building that momentum over time,” Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates said. “He slowly builds it, and it stays for a while.” 

In Game 4, Betts went deep in his first at-bat of the game for the second straight day. This time, there was no hesitating on his trot around the bases. Betts got all of a 403-foot blast to left-center. 

“If he’s going,” Hernández said, “everybody’s going to follow.”

That’s what took place in Wednesday’s eight-run trouncing. The next inning, Ohtani knocked in a run with an RBI single. Betts followed with another RBI knock. The stars atop the lineup started the day a combined 3-for-4 with three RBI, and Betts had finally found something of a groove. 

“He knows who he is,” said reliever Daniel Hudson, who threw a scoreless inning in the Dodgers’ Game 4 shutout. “But this is a really, really hard game, and hitting’s even harder than my side of it. I think sometimes he can be a little bit tough on himself. So, to see him come out these last two games and get some big hits for us, hopefully a little bit of a weight off his shoulders, and he can go out there and just be Mookie.”

Suddenly, hits came in bunches: a Muncy double, a Will Smith two-run homer. By the end of the third inning, the Dodgers led 5-0 and already had more hits than either of the previous two games. 

In the process, they removed one of San Diego’s greatest assets. 

The “beat L.A.” chants that had just burst with vigor, boosting the Padres through a nail-biting Game 3 victory, suddenly sounded more like a plea. The 2024 Dodgers, with their season on the line, would not fold lifelessly the way they had in their first-round exits the past two years. 

On Wednesday, they did not have Miguel Rojas, whose torn adductor forced him out of Game 3 early. They did not have Freddie Freeman, who got a day off for his sprained ankle. (The Dodgers made that call during a team breakfast the morning of Game 4.) They did not have a starting pitcher, either, going to a bullpen game while facing elimination. 

But they did have Betts, the six-time Silver Slugger who started to resemble the player who was on an MVP track this season before a broken hand sidelined him for two months. 

“I think we all knew Mookie was going to be Mookie,” Freeman said. 

Just as important, with the series moving to a winner-take-all matchup Friday in Los Angeles, Betts might have reminded himself, too.

“I think he just needed a couple hits to get it out of his head,” Muncy said. “You’ve seen it the last two nights, he’s been Mookie Betts.”

 Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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SAN DIEGO — It felt appropriate when Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge roamed the stands in a live performance in the eighth inning Tuesday night and invited a record crowd of 47,744 raucous fans at Petco Park to join along in singing his song, which has turned into a celebratory anthem at 19 Tony Gwynn Dr. 

The Dodgers had one big blast, but the Padres did all the small things. 

They poured on when given extra chances, matched up perfectly in the bullpen with Game 3 of the National League Division Series in the balance and, most importantly, played the crisp defense their counterparts did not in a 6-5 win that once again put San Diego on the precipice of sending its division-winning rivals home early in the postseason. 

But for all the parallels to 2022, all the feelings of euphoric déjà vu in the Gaslamp District, this year feels different. If the Padres finish the job at home Wednesday, it won’t stun anyone the way it did two years ago when their 89-win team bested the 111-win juggernaut Dodgers. 

This time, the Padres aren’t sneaking up on anyone. 

This time, they’re an unrelenting unit with few, if any, glaring weaknesses. 

This time, they just might be the best team in the entire playoff field. 

“As well as we’re playing,” Fernando Tatís Jr. said, “I see us playing even better.”

The Padres’ star right fielder was already having one of the best starts to a postseason ever — his 2.151 OPS through four playoff games entering Tuesday was the highest of any player ever with at least 18 plate appearances — when he delivered a stadium-shaking, backbreaking two-run blast that sent Petco Park into a frenzy and turned a snowballing second inning for Walker Buehler and the Dodgers into a full-on calamity. 

The box score for Buehler looked ugly: five innings, seven hits, six runs (all earned), one walk, no strikeouts. But neither his final line nor his fiery walk off the field after the disaster frame, which ended with him throwing his glove and various items in the Dodgers’ dugout, painted the full picture of his outing. 

All six San Diego runs Tuesday night came home in a barrage that could have been avoided entirely had Buehler’s defense backed him up. 

This is the danger of a banged-up infield against an inexorable contact-heavy offense. The Padres tallied the fewest strikeouts and the most hits in the sport and had 10 walk-off wins this year. They will put the ball in play. And on Tuesday, they made the hobbled Dodgers pay. 

“When you give a good team extra outs, it’s hard to throw up zeroes,” manager Dave Roberts said. 

With Manny Machado on first, Jackson Merrill pulled a grounder that forced Freddie Freeman, who’s gutting through a badly sprained ankle, to dive to his right. Freeman’s throw from his knees to second base ricocheted off Machado, whose circuitous route cut off a clear lane, and into left field. 

The more lethal miscue, however, came one batter later when Xander Bogaerts hit another potential double-play ball. Shortstop Miguel Rojas, whose adductor strain ultimately forced him out of the game before night’s end, decided to run to the bag himself to try to turn two instead of flipping to second. Both runners were safe, and the Dodgers’ auspicious first-inning lead — something the starting pitching-deprived club hadn’t had in a postseason game since Game 1 of the 2022 NLDS — was gone. 

David Peralta, a former Dodger and unsung hero of the Padres’ two wins in the series, followed by pulling a fastball in and off the plate down the line for a two-run double. Jake Cronenworth deposited an infield single. At the time, only two balls had left the infield and the Padres had already plated three runs. 

Buehler would rebound with a sac fly and a popout when he made his only obvious mistake pitch of the catastrophic inning, leaving an 0-2 fastball in the nitro zone of the postseason’s hottest hitter. Tatís, who’s 10-for-18 with four homers this October, did not miss. 

“Man, when I hit it, I don’t know, I just blacked out, started screaming at my dugout, just energy through the roof,” Tatís said. 

The past two games showcased the various ways this iteration of the Padres can win games and cause matchup woes. 

Even without Joe Musgrove, they possess starting pitchers capable of spinning gems, as Yu Darvish did with seven innings of one-run ball in Game 2. The off-field antics from Sunday night at Dodger Stadium raised the temperature level of the series but also took the attention off the actual results of the contest, which was an absolute bludgeoning by a Padres offense that became the first team in MLB history to launch six homers in a road playoff game. 

They can win by mashing, but they can also ravage the will of an opponent by putting ball after ball after ball in play, the way they did while batting around in Tuesday’s six-run onslaught. It’s a contact-heavy lineup equipped to cause havoc, even when the three-time batting champ at the top isn’t producing. 

“You see it every night, it’s somebody different that gets the big hit or makes the big defensive play or makes the big pitching spot when we needed it,” Jake Cronenworth said. “Whatever it is, I think that’s what makes this group so special. It’s not just one or two people that are carrying us, it’s a collective group. Everybody leans on each other.”

And when that offense provides a lead in the middle innings, there might not be a more formidable bullpen in the sport. 

After general manager AJ Preller made aggressive moves to acquire relievers Tanner Scott, Jason Adam and Bryan Hoeing at the deadline, Padres relievers ranked in the top five in the majors in ERA, strikeout rate and strikeout-to-walk ratio the rest of the year. They played a significant role in the late-season success of a Padres team that had the best record in baseball after the break. 

Now, pared down to the top high-leverage threats, the bullpen’s even scarier. 

On the rare occasions when the starting pitcher falters, as Michael King did in Game 2, allowing a Teoscar Hernández grand slam that cut a five-run lead down to one, that group behind him is a steadying presence. Jeremiah Estrada, Adam, Scott and closer Robert Suárez backed up King by combining to allow just one baserunner the rest of the way. 

“This is a family here,” said Estrada, who, in a career year, sacrificed his eighth-inning role for lower leverage opportunities to accommodate the deadline additions. “I was just like, ‘Look, you guys have given me the opportunity. That’s all I wanted, just an opportunity to show you guys who I can be. I’m going to give you my best. These guys come in, that’s more help. New brothers coming along.”

When Suárez is right — after a shaky end to the season, the Padres stuck with him in the ninth-inning role, and he has rewarded them with 3.1 scoreless frames this postseason — the bullpen is a full-fledged force. But the Padres won’t need their relievers quite the same way the Dodgers will in a do-or-die Game 4, with the teetering club one loss away from a third straight first-round exit at the hands of a lower-seeded division foe. 

For the Dodgers, Tuesday’s defeat did include some silver linings. 

Mookie Betts, who was hitless in his previous 22 postseason at-bats entering the night, homered in the opening frame on a nearly identical deep drive to the one Jurickson Profar robbed from him the game prior. After rounding first, Betts was near the pitcher’s mound on his way back to the dugout assuming it had been caught before returning to the basepath and continuing his trot. Luck hadn’t been on his side lately, but maybe it’s turning after a two-hit night. Getting Betts going will be crucial to the Dodgers’ survival. 

After the blow-up inning, Buehler bounced back to hold the Padres scoreless the next three frames. In the fifth inning, Roberts made a mound visit after a single from Machado but let Buehler continue. After a wild pitch to Jackson Merrill moved Machado to second, the Dodgers intentionally walked the star rookie on a 1-1 count. Leaving Buehler in, and providing the free pass, paid off, as Buehler escaped the inning unscathed. 

That was one less out needed from a Dodgers reliever, with a bullpen game on tap to keep their season alive and avoid being on the wrong side of another rollicking celebration at Petco Park. The Padres plan to start ace Dylan Cease, who threw just 82 pitches while going 3.1 innings in Game 1 on Saturday, on short rest.

“Not a great situation,” Roberts said. “But as far as winning a ball game tomorrow, I think we’re in a really good spot.” 

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LOS ANGELES — Before 21-year-old Jackson Merrill took the league by storm and 31-year-old Jurickson Profar orchestrated the best season of his 11-year career, there was a position group littered with uncertainty. 

When the Padres reported to Arizona this spring, no one knew who’d be joining Fernando Tatís Jr. in the outfield. After trading away Juan Soto and Trent Grisham in December, the only other outfielder on the 40-man roster was José Azocar, who would not make it through the 2024 season with the franchise. 

Turns out, all it would take to assemble one of Major League Baseball’s most productive position groups was a $1 million free-agent flier and a top infield prospect. 

Profar produced in a career year, finishing seventh in the majors in on-base percentage. Merrill mesmerized in his switch from shortstop to center field, leading all major-league rookies in FanGraphs wins above replacement. And Tatís starred, leading an unheralded outfield group that had suddenly transformed from unsettled to unstoppable. 

On Sunday, that trio’s medley of clutch hits and nifty web gems helped the Padres even the National League Division Series in a 10-2 drubbing of the Dodgers that got ugly late both on the scoreboard and in the stands. 

“Wild,” Tatís said. “Oh, man, it’s definitely wild out here. But at the same time, it’s a good environment for baseball, although people get carried away a little bit with their emotions.” 

The answers to the Padres’ outfield questions came just before Opening Day. 

In February, they brought back Profar, the former top overall prospect who had been a slightly below league average through his first 10 big-league seasons. The answer up the middle came internally in March, when Merrill, then a 20-year-old shortstop who had never played above Double-A or played center field at any point in his professional career, won the competition. 

In a stunning development, all three became All-Stars. And in Game 2 of the NLDS, all three starred.

Profar, Tatís and Merrill combined for eight hits, three home runs and a series of spectacular catches that drew the wrath, ire and attention of 54,119 fans on a turbulent evening at Dodger Stadium that ended with fans throwing objects into the outfield and visiting bullpen. 

“What I got out of it was a bunch of dudes that showed up in front of a big, hostile crowd with stuff being thrown at them and said, ‘We’re going to talk with our play, we’re not going to back down,'” Padres manager Mike Shildt said “‘We’re going to elevate our game, we’re going to be together, and we’re going to take care of business.'” 

At one point in the seventh inning, baseballs, beer cans and debris were hurled from the pavilions toward the direction of San Diego outfielders, leading to a nine-minute delay. None of it stopped the Padres from responding in a heated series. 

In fact, the actions in the bleachers seemed to fuel a lineup that launched four of its six home runs on the night after the ignominious display. 

“We saw our boy Profar getting balls thrown at him, he has a right to be mad,” Tatís said. “But at the end of the day, we understand we’re on a mission.”

Profar set the stage early before things deteriorated late. 

For the second straight night, the Padres jumped on a reeling Dodgers rotation to take an early lead. And for the second straight night, the Dodgers answered back. 

Or, so it seemed.  

The home run tunes blared from the speakers in the bottom of the first inning as Mookie Betts rounded second and pointed toward the Dodgers’ bullpen during his customer trot around the bases. It wasn’t until Betts rounded second base that he realized Profar — who had spent the past few seconds hopping up and down and staring toward a group of fans in the first few rows who had tried and failed to secure the deep drive to left field — had robbed the homer with the catch of his life. 

“I thought that was kind of funny,” Merrill said. “But if [I] was Mookie, I’d be pretty mad.” 

Did Merrill know Profar caught it? 

“Absolutely not,” Merrill said. “I was like, ‘Dang, 1-1, what are we doing?’ He jumped around, and it looked like he was like, ‘No, no.’ When he threw it in, I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are we doing?’ First inning, we’re going like this? I love it.” 

In right field, Tatís wasn’t sure, either. 

“I was probably like everybody else, had that question mark until he started jumping back,” Tatís said. “Then he showed the ball. My emotions went through the roof.” 

So did those of Dodgers fans, who by night’s end couldn’t contain them. 

There were unfortunate interactions throughout the game between the Padres’ outfielders and fans in the pavilions, particularly after the corner outfielders’ dazzling defensive displays. 

In the fourth inning, Tatís robbed Freddie Freeman of a double when he stretched out to make a grab. The catch earned claps from starter Yu Darvish on the mound — and a chorus of boos from the bleachers. Tatís danced as the jeers rained down. He said he doesn’t mind anything fans say to him. He will get into the act and go back and forth, too. 

But none of the Padres’ histrionics warranted what took place in a shameful seventh-inning display as Dodger fans threw baseballs in Profar’s direction and trash toward Tatís. Profar was incensed, only calming down after his Padres teammates paid him a visit in shallow left field. There were multiple announcements over the PA speakers reminding fans not to throw anything on the field, and at one point stadium security huddled around the Padres outfielders and escorted them away from the disturbance.

“You can yell whatever you want,” Profar said. “Just the throwing stuff, people can get hurt.”

The chaos deterred neither Darvish, who proceeded to put up another zero to close out a seven-inning, one-run gem, nor a Padres offense that seemed to be sparked by the fiasco. After the delay, Machado gathered the team in the dugout and encouraged his teammates to remain locked in, despite the fracas happening around them. 

Earlier in the night, Machado was involved in a different quarrel, this one between the lines. 

After Tatís — who is 9-for-14 with three home runs to start the postseason — homered and doubled in his first two at-bats, he then got plunked on an 0-1 pitch by Jack Flaherty in a 3-1 game to start the sixth inning. Profar and catcher Will Smith exchanged some words. Machado, who thought Flaherty was throwing at Tatís, was also displeased. 

Flaherty said he wouldn’t have purposely tried to hit Tatís in that situation, but tensions brewed nonetheless. After striking out Machado, the Dodgers pitcher yelled some choice words toward the Padres third baseman, telling him to “sit the f— down.” Machado, upon learning what Flaherty said, chirped back. The two would continue trading barbs, at one point appearing to challenge each other to a fight, before night’s end. 

As everyone seemed to be losing their cool, the youngest player on the field kept his.

After Machado struck out and Flaherty departed, Merrill won the ensuing lefty-lefty matchup and padded the Padres’ lead with an RBI single. Two innings later, the electrifying rookie delivered the knockout blow with a two-run home run. After finishing the year leading all rookies in hits, batting average and slugging, Merrill has carried his success into October, tallying six hits in his first four career playoff games.

“He’s just going to show up and ball,” Tatís said. “What this kid has done for this team this year is just amazing. His talent is unbelievable, his character. I feel like everybody can see it, what type of baseball player he is.” 

On a night overshadowed by some bad actors in the stands, Tatís left them with a parting gift in the ninth, sending another baseball back into the bleachers. 

The crowd at Dodger Stadium threatened to derail the performance. 

But a surprising Padres outfield once again stole the show. 

Now, it’s a series. 

“I know we’re about to go back to San Diego with a very, very loud, raucous, aggressive, hungry crowd that’s going to be super excited and going to be getting after it,” Shildt said. “But I know, also, that we’ll stay classy, San Diego.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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LOS ANGELES — The scene was all too familiar. The smoke from the pregame pyrotechnics in center field had barely lifted, the reverberations from the flyover of the F-35 jets before first pitch had barely stopped and the twirling of the blue rally towels had barely ended when the pomp and circumstance of Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium suddenly ceased. 

For the second straight postseason, a division foe plated multiple runs before the Dodgers had taken a single October swing. Again, a shaky rotation threatened to sap the energy from a buzzing building and derail another season. An unease enveloped a stadium full of more than 53,000 fans, who had seen this movie before. 

This time, though, a new character was introduced to the production. 

This time, however decimated the pitching staff, however miserable the start, however slim the chances are with a tattered rotation, it feels like there might be hope.

This time, there’s Shohei Ohtani. 

“We’ve obviously had a lot of good players,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But when you get a player like Shohei, who clearly embraces these moments and has the ability to carry a ballclub, I do think that there’s something to alleviating the … I hate saying pressure, but the pressure for other players.”

A year after allowing six runs in the top of the first inning in a dismal start to the 2023 National League Division Series against the Diamondbacks, the Dodgers made progress in the opening frame; they surrendered three. 

Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s major-league playoff debut began much like his major-league debut. Facing the same Padres opponent that pummeled the former NPB star for five runs in one inning in Korea back in March, an unforgiving San Diego lineup plated three runs within the first four batters of Saturday’s Game 1, capped by a stadium-silencing two-run shot from Manny Machado. 

It felt like déjà vu, especially after the Dodgers failed to respond in the bottom of the frame despite two runners on base. 

The start was reminiscent not only of last postseason, when the wild-card D-backs outscored the Dodgers by 13 runs over the course of a three-game sweep, but also the year prior, when the wild-card Padres stunned the 111-win Dodgers in the 2022 NLDS. Two years ago, a fearsome L.A. lineup cratered with runners in scoring position. Last year, the offense cratered in general, scoring just two runs in every game. 

This year, Ohtani might have exorcised the offensive demons of postseasons past with one game-tying three-run swing. 

“We don’t expect anything less than that,” Teoscar Hernández said. “He’s the guy that’s going to guide us through all this.”

Ohtani had a .628 batting average with six homers, six doubles and 20 RBI over his last 10 games of the regular season. With runners in scoring position during that stretch, he was 12-for-14 with five homers. Entering the first playoff game of his career, he said he was not nervous. Playing in important games, being the person to deliver in the most important situations, this was his childhood dream.

There was no bigger situation in his big-league career than Saturday’s second inning. 

The second at-bat of Ohtani’s postseason career began with the two-time — and likely soon-to-be three-time — MVP fouling a 2-0 pitch off his knee. With two on and two out, Ohtani composed himself. 

All week, the Dodgers had stressed the importance of hitting the fastball, something they had failed to do each of the past two postseasons. Last year, the Dodgers hit .268 and slugged .480 against fastballs in the regular season. In the playoffs, those numbers dropped to .169 and .262, respectively, which ranked last and second to last among playoff clubs. 

It was a similar story in the 2022 NLDS against the Padres. The Dodgers ranked in the top three in MLB in batting average and slugging against fastballs during the regular season. In the playoffs, they hit .192 and slugged .342 with a 27.7% whiff rate against the pitch, which ranked second worst among postseason clubs. 

“Whether it’s timing, the time off, I don’t really know what the answer is in terms of the why,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. 

They attempted to combat those issues during the five days off before the start of the NLDS this year, altering the structure of their practices and preparation. They favored a more gradual ramp-up in intensity rather than day after day of sim games, and they did more work with velocity machines. 

On Saturday, it paid off. 

“Three runs can kind of knock the air out of you,” Freddie Freeman said. “But when you have Shohei Ohtani, that always helps. Just, when you need a big hit or a big situation comes up, we had the right guy at the plate.”

After the painful foul ball, Ohtani turned on a 96.9 mph four-seamer from Dylan Cease at the top of the zone and laced a no-doubt shot 111.8 mph off the bat. He flung his bat emphatically to the side before letting out a scream on the game-tying blast. Ohtani beamed. The crowd erupted. The Dodgers’ bullpen did, too. 

“We were going nuts,” said reliever Alex Vesia, one of five Dodgers relievers who held the Padres to two hits over six scoreless innings after an early departure from Yamamoto. “There was life.” 

Two years ago, Roberts lamented that his Dodgers team didn’t seem to match the energy or the intensity of the Padres team in the other dugout. At least to begin the NLDS, that wasn’t an issue. 

“I think there’s something to having that superstar player that can carry a ballclub,” Roberts said. 

The rest of the lineup seemed to feed off of Ohtani’s pressure-relieving blast. In the third inning, the effort went further than anyone would have asked. 

Freddie Freeman was iffy to play in Game 1 after injuring his ankle. He told his son Charlie when he left the house that he wasn’t sure he would be able to go. He did some pregame work, got off the field and hit off the Trajekt velocity machine to see how he would handle something faster than typical batting practice. When he was hitting line drives off the machine, he felt like he was good enough to contribute. 

He not only recorded two hits but also stole a base, making his manager hold his breath in the process. 

“Ninety feet means a lot in this game, especially in postseason,” Freeman said. “I know I took a big risk with how I’m feeling, but there’s just an opportunity that presented itself, and I had to go for it. If I can’t play the game the right way, I shouldn’t be out there. I was feeling good enough, adrenaline took over. Adrenaline’s worn off now.” 

The Dodgers didn’t score that inning, but seeing Freeman’s effort provided a boost, too. 

“He could’ve waited a couple more days,” shortstop Miguel Rojas, who’s playing through a tear in his adductor, said. “The series, it’s not like we’re going home today. But you see the importance of a guy like Freddie being on the field, running all over the place and knowing what he had to go through, it pushed me to kind of forget about everything that is going with me because it’s not even close to what he’s going through.”

When the Padres jumped ahead again by two runs, the Dodgers responded with three runs in the fourth — including a go-ahead hit by Hernández — and another in the fifth. The first three batters in their lineup reached base seven times. The bottom of the lineup carried its weight, too. Will Smith, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Rojas combined to reach base seven times. 

The offensive onslaught helped the Dodgers overcome a three-inning start from Yamamoto. Stunningly, that outing represented an improvement from the Dodgers’ previous three postseason starts. In their past four postseason games dating back to last year, Dodgers starting pitchers have gone a combined 7.2 innings while allowing 18 runs on 21 hits and five walks with only three strikeouts. 

They rebuilt their rotation in the winter to try to better withstand the rigors of a season, and it didn’t matter. Tyler Glasnow won’t be returning this year. Neither will Gavin Stone, nor Dustin May, River Ryan or Emmet Sheehan. On Saturday, more grim news came on the pitching front when Clayton Kershaw revealed that an MRI on his injured toe showed that he had made his injury worse. He won’t be returning this year, either. 

Considering the state of their rotation, it stands to reason the Dodgers will need to outhit and outslug their opponents to outlast them throughout October. It’s a dangerous way to live, but it has to be the blueprint to success.

With Ohtani leading the offense, it feels like it just might work. 

“I just really have never seen a guy in the biggest of moments come through as consistently as he has,” Roberts said. “I don’t know how he does it.” 

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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LOS ANGELES — For the past six years, Shohei Ohtani‘s postseason memories came only as a spectator. 

He remembers working out in Seattle when the Dodgers celebrated their 2020 short-season title. He remembers watching some playoff games last year after elbow surgery wiped out the end of his final season with the Angels. He remembers the disappointment of witnessing other teams do what his team could never accomplish. 

“Overall, it’s just really a mixed, complicated feeling,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton, “not being able to participate in the postseason.” 

That feeling is finally gone in 2024, as he gets set to play postseason baseball for the first time in his major-league career Saturday night. 

Twenty-four hours ahead of his first playoff game, Ohtani was asked if he was nervous. His interpreter, Will Ireton, had translated the first two questions to begin Friday’s press conference. On this query, though, the reigning National League Player of the Month decided to take it himself. 

“Nope,” Ohtani responded succinctly in English before Ireton could even begin the translation. 

“It’s always been my childhood dream to be able to be in an important situation, to play in important games,” he elaborated later in Japanese. “So I think the excitement of that is greater than anything else that I could possibly feel.”

Eight years ago, at just 22 years old, Ohtani’s two-way skills helped the 2016 Nippon Ham Fighters win NPB’s Japan Series. This winter, he made a change to try to reach his sport’s pinnacle again. 

Thirty miles northwest of Anaheim, Ohtani joined a Dodgers team that had made the playoffs 11 straight seasons. Even more enticing, he appreciated that the club’s leadership considered that decade, which included just the one short-season World Series title, a failure. 

Ohtani’s desire to win, and the Dodgers’ ability to do so consistently, made for a symbiotic relationship. It was a welcome change for a player who had never experienced a single winning season or even meaningful late-season baseball as a major-leaguer. 

This September, for the first time in his career, every contest mattered. And he took off. 

Over the course of the month, Ohtani led the majors in batting average, slugging, OPS, hits and steals among a litany of offensive stats. By season’s end, he became the first player ever with 50 homers and 50 steals in a season. He finished the year with 54 and 59, respectively, surpassing Ichiro Suzuki’s single-season record for steals by a Japanese-born player in the process. 

“For the people who are conspiracy theorists and think that Vince McMahon is scripting Major League Baseball, I think the way he got to 40/40, the game he had to get to 50/50, I think has added some fuel for those people,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “It’s incredible. The ability to slow everything down around him is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.” 

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There may be no better example than last year, when he sparkled in front of the bright lights of the World Baseball Classic, hitting .435 with a 1.345 OPS while going 2-0 on the mound with a 1.86 ERA to earn MVP honors. Ohtani put a bow on Team Japan’s win by striking out teammate Mike Trout to secure a victory over Team USA. 

“What you don’t know about someone until you see them in those moments is, What kind of competitor are they?” Friedman said. “And he more than answered those questions for Samurai Japan, especially in that ninth inning. I got goosebumps watching that inning, and I think the whole world got to see what an incredible competitor he is.”

Ohtani’s performance was preceded by a rousing speech pregame in which he advised his teammates not to be intimidated by the superstars on the other side. 

“He was leading the team,” Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani’s WBC teammate, recalled through a translator, “performing as kind of like a leader of the team.” 

This experience will differ from the WBC though, as Ohtani acknowledged, in part because of the five days leading into the postseason. To try to stay hot and game-ready, Ohtani went to Dodger Stadium every day throughout the hiatus and got two live at-bats per day. His veteran teammates haven’t felt the need to offer him any sage advice ahead of his first postseason. 

They saw all they needed down the stretch. 

The Dodgers’ grasp of the division lead was slipping at the time. Their 8.5-game lead in the National League West in late July had shrunk to two in the season’s final week. Ohtani came to the rescue. He authored one of the greatest single-game performances of all time to get to 50/50, helping clinch a spot in the playoffs for the Dodgers in the process. A week later, his late go-ahead hits against the Padres team chasing the Dodgers in the standings clinched the division. 

Over his final 10 games, Ohtani batted .628 with six homers, 10 stolen bases and 20 RBIs. 

“If there’s any person that I feel that’s going to be able to handle this,” manager Dave Roberts said, “it’s certainly Shohei.” 

It looks that way more now than it did at the start of the year, when Ohtani had a tendency to chase with runners on base. He said he had “a strong desire to fit in with the team as soon as possible,” and that anxiousness was leaking into his at-bats. The lone imperfection to his offensive profile would eventually disappear. 

Beyond the walk-off grand slam to get to 40/40 and the otherworldly performance to get to 50/50, Ohtani’s knack for hitting in the clutch improved more and more the closer the calendar got to October. He went 15-for-26 with runners in scoring position in September and finished the season with an OPS over 1.000 in high-leverage spots. 

“I think that he understands the talent behind him,” Roberts said. “He can’t do it all on his own.”

That supporting cast, led by Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, has made pitching to Ohtani all the more challenging. Despite a year that will likely end with Ohtani’s third MVP trophy, he was intentionally walked just 10 times, down more than twice as much from a season ago. 

While Padres manager Mike Shildt wouldn’t reveal his plan to keep Ohtani off the bases, he acknowledged how the threats directly behind Ohtani in the lineup change the dynamic.

“You usually put somebody on because you like the matchups better behind them,” Shildt said. “And you’ve got two MVP-caliber guys right behind him.”

There might be a time in this series, Shildt said, when the Padres will give Ohtani the free base. At the same time, the San Diego skipper expressed belief in his cadre of pitching talents and sounded willing to let them try to attack the Dodgers’ star DH. 

Lefties hit just .233 against the Padres pitching staff this year — the sixth-lowest mark in the majors — and the addition of southpaw Tanner Scott to the bullpen gives San Diego an important high-leverage weapon to combat the many left-handed sluggers in the Dodgers’ lineup in the NLDS. 

But few hitters are like Ohtani, who finally will make an imprint on the MLB playoffs instead of just watching them. 

“I’m excited for our fans,” Friedman said. “I’m excited for fans all over the world to get a chance to see this. It’s been the thing he talked about when we met in December — every subsequent conversation with him has been about October. I think he’s really excited for the moment.”

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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How would you pitch to Juan Soto knowing Aaron Judge is lurking behind him? What about Shohei Ohtani and the fearsome trio atop the Dodgers’ lineup?

As part of our weekly chat with MLB on FOX analyst John Smoltz, we asked the Hall of Fame pitcher how he’d go about attacking 11 of the best hitters in this year’s playoff field.

1. Shohei Ohtani, Dodgers

Smoltz: For Ohtani, you better have two lanes working. You got to get something fading away, and you got to get some thinking boring in because if you don’t, you’re going to have a guy with tremendous ability to go to all parts of the field with power. Yes, I’ve seen him swing at pitches up if a guy’s got a good heater. 

But I also think that if you don’t have those separators, those lanes going the other way, he’s just too good. And his ability to be quiet at the plate but powerful when he swings, it’s almost like there’s times where he pulls off the ball, and he can be vulnerable. But then when he’s not pulling off the ball, boy, if I’m facing him, I’m throwing him a bunch of splits away, and I’m trying to slider and backfoot, and then I’m elevating the fastball. But you really got to be able to do a multitude of things to get him out. 

2. Aaron Judge, Yankees

Smoltz: Aaron Judge presents some problems because he’s starting to close the windows of opportunities, but you still can get some swing and miss. You have to put pressure on the bottom part of the strike zone and hope that you get some help. But you’ve got to get pitches going away from them, sliders, curveballs, once you’ve established some fastballs, which is the key. You’ve got to be able to locate your fastball. If you don’t, he’s going to make you pay. And then, every once in a while, you got to make them honest with a fastball and to keep him off the pitches away, so he’s been able to adjust and stay off the low pitch. But that’s where you got to get him. 

He’s too tall, and he’s too strong that if you live in the strike zone and upper tier of the strike zone, he’s going to get you eventually. But the one thing that’s going to be interesting to see is I would not pitch him in the postseason like I pitched him in the regular season, meaning I would be very careful and not allow him to beat me at any point in any time of the game. So, he should have a high total of walks this postseason. 

3. Juan Soto, Yankees

Smoltz: Soto is so good, and the reason he’s so good is he just commands a strike zone. He’s not going to swing outside the strike zone too often. He’s so good down and his eye to the pitches that are borderline that you can get a lot of swing and miss out of most guys, and there’s really not a lot of places to go. The one thing you got to do against Soto is you got to mix it up. And he sometimes gives you a free strike, you know, and gets you get ahead of them. But then he’s so comfortable with two strikes that it really doesn’t matter. 

And I would say, sometimes he’s vulnerable upstairs above the strike zone with two strikes, but rarely will he swing down below the zone. But ideally, you want to get that back foot breaking ball to get him to swing over the top. So he is the reason Judge has so many RBIs, not to mention Judge’s great season he’s having, but he’s one of those guys that has single-handedly changed the lineup for the New York Yankees when they traded for him. 

4. Bryce Harper, Phillies

Smoltz: He’s very aggressive. He has an aggressive style, really attacking the baseball. So, you can play on his aggressiveness. If your stuff is good, you’ll get Bryce Harper early, but you better be getting him early because when his timing is on and he’s not really trying to do too much, he’s tough. And I think top of the zone you can get him above the barrel the bat. He loves to attack the fastball, and then every once in a while you can expand it with a curveball below the zone. 

All these guys we’re talking about, every hitter has a weakness, they just have less weaknesses than the rest of the hitters that don’t get to get to the level they’ve gotten. And I think for Bryce Harper, who’s a student of the game, you better not lay one in there because he’s going to deposit it in a seat somewhere. You’ve got to make pitches like it’s 0-2 on Bryce Harper. And there’s good and bad with that. There’s some swing and miss. But then there’s, you’re getting a new baseball, too, if you leave one over the middle of the plate.

5. Yordan Álvarez, Astros

Smoltz: He’s Big Papi reincarnated — David Ortiz. He is calm. He doesn’t really overswing. Nothing seems to bother him. Velocity doesn’t bother him. Spin doesn’t bother him. I’ll tell you what, he single-handedly for me would be the guy I would circle in a lineup and go, ‘uh, uh, I’m not facing him in that ballpark.’ So he can go both ways. He has every plate coverage that you want, and he’s patient. 

He’s going to get some swing and misses, but you’re not going to get three of them in the same way, and that’s the key. When you have a guy this good and this talented, you have to find a different way every time to get him out. You cannot, at least in my recollection, I’ve not seen anything dude outside of a left-hander be able to get him out the same way every time.

6. Fernando Tatís Jr., Padres

Smoltz: He’s a big, strong, long-levered hitter who can do damage down in the strike zone, down. He looks like he could be a pretty good golfer because I think that the way that he gets extension creates that power and leverage and makes him unique. You got to make him honest inside and up above the zone, and you gotta try to again whenever you’re facing these hitters, wherever they swing, you got to follow that same swing pattern if you’re going to your secondary stuff on the same level. So, in other words, if he swings at a high fastball, he’s not going to swing at one in the dirt. These guys are elite. But if he swings at a low fastball and follows it away, then you have to follow up with that slider on the same plane. 

You cannot have variances where you’re going to get swings and misses like some other hitters are vulnerable. They’re just having a hard time mechanically connected. If you leave one down, that’s where he loves it, to my opinion, what I’ve seen. And then, of course, he can get in that home run-happy place where his power starts getting connected to what his timing is, and everything about hitting is timing. So I think you gotta elevate, you gotta make him honest in and then hope that you can expand him away.

7, 8. Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, Dodgers

Smoltz: Two guys who are similar with opposite bats. They’re patient. Freddie will go after more pitches early than Mookie will. Mookie’s giving a lot of pitchers strike one. Because, again, he’s patient, and he understands what he’s trying to look for. You cannot beat Mookie middle-in when he’s right. He’s just going to do damage. 

Freddie is just a freak. His ability to get to pitches that no one else gets to with his funky style of hitting makes him unbelievably difficult. He will go the other way on the ground, which makes him difficult because they play him to a shift. He’ll smoke that down and in pitch that most people swing over the top, and he’ll get to a high heater. So, you have to change speeds and really kind of play mind games a little bit with Freddie. You got to do it opposite because you can’t just chuck a bunch of fastballs because he’ll spoil a bunch of them, and he’ll get to a pitch that he wants. To keep those three guys off the base consistently is why it’s difficult to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

9. Bobby Witt Jr., Royals

Smoltz: I can guarantee you this: The book of pitchers has yet to figure it out. So what they’re doing is they’re trying to get to a place where they can find some crack in his ability to be vulnerable. And haven’t seen it this year, so they’re going to have to take a hard look and study a lot of pitchers, and what the ones that did have success and how they expose it. But again, because of his speed and ability to put the ball in play, it makes it difficult to just say, ‘I got to live away. I got to make him reach for things.’ Because when he reaches for things, and he doesn’t hit it over 100 miles an hour, he can reach first base. 

So, that’s the talent skill that he has, the power combination. I haven’t seen too many guys elevate. Maybe that’s one area that you could expose, the zone. But anything that seems to be in the strike zone right now, and without taking a hard look at really digesting his at-bats, he’s in the category of a Trea Turner, but not the swing and miss of Trea Turner. He’s got the ability to hit for power and speed and disrupt a pitcher when he gets on the base. 

10. José Ramírez, Guardians

Smoltz: A shorter guy with a lot of power and a lot of ability to put back to the ball. You’ve got to be able to get enough fastballs by him, or at least establish your fastball to make everything else work off of it. You have to be able to get him to hit the ball the other way because if you miss middle-in, he’s going to beat you with power. 

And as the left-handed hitter facing the right-handed pitcher, I’m fine with him going the other way and trying to think that he could possibly beat me the other way. I’m going to take my chances. Same kind of style, though: If you crowd him with a fastball, then you’ve got to be able to bear in that breaking ball down and in to his back foot. That’s where he’ll swing over the top. You get that pitch, but good luck making those pitches after over time not making a mistake because if you leave it middle-in, that’s where his power shows up. For a shorter guy, he’s got a lot of power.

11. Luis Arráez, Padres

Smoltz: I love watching him hit. I wouldn’t love pitching against him because he’s not going to swing and miss. I mean, if you strike him out, you’re doing something special. And I haven’t figured him out. That’s what makes him a great hitter, right? When you can’t figure out a hitter, that means he’s got a lot of windows that are closed that you can go to. And I would just probably slower than slow, if you have it. I think he thrives on velocity. He’s got such a short swing, compact swing. You throw him away, he goes away. You throw him in, he pulls it down the line. 

He’s a Tony Gwynn-esque, and a lot of people will say Rod Carew-esque, you know, it looks like Rod Carew and his style of hitting. And I just think you’ve got to maybe slow him down to where even though it’s short and compact, he’s not using your velocity for his advantage. I’m not saying it’s going to work. I’m saying that’s what I would try, and every once in a while, believe it or not, I’d throw it right down the middle and confuse them, and maybe he hits it at somebody. But you’re not striking them out a lot. That’s one of the greatest in-season trades that nobody saw coming that changed the direction of the San Diego Padres and their lineup, and he has not disappointed. 

John Smoltz, a first-ballot Baseball Hall of Famer, eight-time All-Star and National League Cy Young Award winner, is FOX MLB’s lead game analyst. In addition to calling the network’s marquee regular-season games, Smoltz is in the booth for the All-Star Game and a full slate of postseason matchups which include Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series assignments.

Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.

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