SAN DIEGO — Mookie Betts homered for the second straight night, Shohei Ohtani hit an RBI single and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat Dylan Cease and the San Diego Padres 8-0 Wednesday night to force a deciding Game 5 in their tense NL Division Series.
Will Smith and Gavin Lux each hit a two-run homer for the Dodgers, who snapped a two-game losing streak and now return home for the next matchup between the NL West rivals on Friday night.
The Padres won 10-2 at Dodger Stadium in Game 2 on Sunday night, when tempers flared on the field and in the stands.
The winner will have home-field advantage in the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets, who eliminated the Philadelphia Phillies in their NLDS.
The Dodgers got a superb effort by opener Ryan Brasier and seven fellow relievers in a bullpen game, holding the Padres to seven hits and extending their scoreless streak to 15 innings. Evan Phillips, who got the win, retired Jurickson Profar, Manny Machado and Jackson Merrill on five pitches in the sixth.
The Dodgers hushed the Petco Park-record crowd of 47,773 that had hoped to see San Diego eliminate LA in the NLDS for the second time in three seasons.
With All-Star first baseman Freddie Freeman sidelined by a troublesome right ankle sprain, Betts and Ohtani — who starred in his first season with the Dodgers — needed to produce to keep LA's season alive. They did just that, with Betts driving in two runs on two hits and Ohtani bringing in one run and reaching three times.
With the Dodgers up 5-0, the Japanese superstar was thrown out trying to score from second on Teoscar Hernández's single in the fourth that caromed off third baseman Manny Machado's glove and hit umpire Mark Ripperger. Machado circled around the ump, grabbed the ball and fired it to catcher Kyle Higashioka, who tagged Ohtani for the third out.
The Padres' gamble to start Cease on short rest backfired. He got Ohtani to ground out opening the game before Betts homered on a full-count pitch. Cease put on two runners with one out in the second and was chased by Ohtani's RBI single to right on his 38th pitch.
Betts hit an RBI single on Bryan Hoeing's first pitch for a 3-0 lead, quieting the towel-waving sellout crowd.
This time, Betts had no doubt about his home run. He drove a 3-2 pitch into the Padres' bullpen beyond the fence in left-center and raised his right index finger as he rounded first while Ohtani raised his arms in celebration in the dugout.
On Tuesday night, Betts homered to left but thought Jurickson Profar had robbed him once again and turned toward the dugout before his teammates and even Padres starter Michael King motioned that it was a homer. Profar robbed Betts of a home run in Sunday night at Dodger Stadium and trolled the fans. That game was stopped for 12 minutes after fans threw baseballs at Profar and trash onto the outfield.
Ohtani hit a tying three-run homer off Cease in the slugger's highly anticipated playoff debut, a 7-5 victory on Saturday night. Ohtani became the first member of the 50-50 club this season with 54 homers and 59 stolen bases.
With Max Muncy aboard on a leadoff double in the third, Smith drove a pitch from Hoeing to the batter's eye in straightaway center field for a 5-0 lead. The Dodgers added on in the seventh with Tommy Edman's sacrifice fly and Lux's two-run shot to right off Wandy Peralta.
The Dodgers kept slugger Fernando Tatis Jr. in the yard after he hit three homers in the first three games, including two on Sunday night, and four overall this postseason. Brasier struck out Tatis in the first, the star's first whiff in six playoff games.
Game 3 recap: Padres win 6-5
Fernando Tatis Jr.'s towering two-run home run highlighted a six-run second inning, and the San Diego Padres held on to beat Shohei Ohtani and the rival Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 on Tuesday night to take a 2-1 lead in a tense NL Division Series.
The Padres moved within one victory of eliminating the Dodgers in the NLDS for the second time in three seasons. Game 4 is Wednesday night at Petco Park, which was packed with a rally towel-waving record crowd of 47,744.
The fans roared as Robert Suarez struck out Gavin Lux on a full-count pitch to complete a four-out save.
Tatis' impressive homer gave the Padres a 6-1 lead, but Teoscar Hernández hit a grand slam with one out in the third off Michael King to bring the Dodgers within a run.
Mookie Betts also homered for the Dodgers to break an 0-for-22 playoff slump, but apparently thought left fielder Jurickson Profar had robbed him like he did in Sunday night's 10-2 Padres win at Dodger Stadium, when tempers flared on the field and in the stands. Betts rounded first and headed toward the dugout before teammates and even King motioned that it was a homer.
Tatis' shot into the left-field seats was his third of the series, leaving him one shy of the NLDS record held by Carlos Beltran (2004, Houston) and Nick Castellanos (2023, Philadelphia). Tatis had two of San Diego's six homers Sunday night. The flamboyant Tatis stood for a few seconds and watched the ball sail out of the yard, flipped his bat and gestured toward the dugout before beginning his trot.
King got his second win in as many playoff starts after allowing five runs and five hits in five innings, with three strikeouts and one walk. He was coming off a gem in the opening game of the Wild Card Series against Atlanta, when he became the first pitcher in history to have 12 strikeouts with no runs and no walks in a postseason debut in San Diego's 4-0 win.
Betts gave the Dodgers a 1-0 lead in the first after some confusion.
He lofted a flyball to the left-field corner with one out in the first inning at almost the same distance as he did in Dodger Stadium on Sunday night, when Profar leaped and reached into the crowd to make the catch. After Profar landed, he trolled the fans by staring at them and bouncing up and down several times before throwing the ball to the infield.
Profar leaped again Tuesday night but couldn’t bring it back, with the ball ticking off his glove and into the crowd. Betts rounded first and turned toward the dugout before he got to second. Betts’ teammates in the dugout, including Max Muncy, motioned for him to keep going and King gestured with his right arm that it was fair.
Betts resumed his trot after his first playoff hit since Game 3 of the 2022 NLDS against San Diego, which the Padres won in four games.
San Diego's second-inning outburst came against losing pitcher Walker Buehler, who was making his first playoff start since Game 6 of the NLCS against Atlanta. Buehler missed the 2023 season after undergoing a second Tommy John surgery in August 2022.
The first five Padres batters reached and scored. Xander Bogaerts drove in a run on a fielder's choice and David Peralta hit a two-run double. Kyle Higashioka hit a sacrifice fly two batters before Tatis homered with two outs.
Manny Machado hit a leadoff single and ended up on third after first baseman Freddie Freeman fielded Jackson Merrill's grounder and hit Machado on the left shoulder while throwing to second from his knees.
Buehler also went five innings, allowing six runs and seven hits with no strikeouts and one walk.
The Dodgers opened the third by loading the bases on consecutive singles by Miguel Rojas, Shohei Ohtani and Betts before Hernández hit a towering shot to straightaway center.
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