more than the 4-2 home-field loss Sunday<\/a> to L.A. that decided a three-game series. Unless a meteor strikes, the Dodgers are headed toward another West title and probably a first-round playoff bye.<\/p>\nBeating L.A. does bring on an endorphin rush, for both Padres players and the team\u2019s fans.<\/p>\n
It often takes the Padres making the most of what few relative strengths they have.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t do that Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Reaper never came calling for the Dodgers because L.A. took a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning with three runs and Padres hitters chased too many pitches for strike three.<\/p>\n
Mason Miller, the Padres\u2019 uber-closer, didn\u2019t leave the bullpen until Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts, in a replica of the World Series-Game 7 clincher at Toronto last fall, turned Fernando Tatis Jr.\u2019s grounder into a game-ending double play.<\/p>\n
Although the Dodgers had success against Miller last month, pestering him into a throwing error that led to a victory, they understood that he represents the Padres\u2019 largest personnel advantage over them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know who\u2019s in the back of the bullpen,\u201d said Freddie Freeman, the team\u2019s No. 3 hitter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith him at the back end,\u201d Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, \u201cyou\u2019re trying to essentially manage for six or seven innings to try to catch a lead, to keep him out of the game. That\u2019s certainly front of mind for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Dodgers took a pivotal five-inning matchup between Padres ace Michael King and their No. 5 starter, Emmet Sheehan.<\/p>\n
Getting four RBIs from their three former National League MVPs, the Dodgers scored four runs off King despite putting only one hard-hit ball into play.<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 only run against a much-improved Sheehan, who had some line-drive luck, came on Manny Machado\u2019s 15th home run.<\/p>\n
By not challenging a borderline full-count ball to Freeman that broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth, the Padres made a large mental error.<\/p>\n
King and catcher Rodolfo Dur\u00e1n, a rookie making his 22nd start, said they should\u2019ve challenged the one-out ball call.<\/p>\n
They might\u2019ve won, keeping the score tied.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been nice to get that one,\u201d manager Craig Stammen said.<\/p>\n
Dur\u00e1n had a tough read of the pitch, a changeup, because he had to reach across his body to catch it near the inside corner.<\/p>\n
A catcher\u2019s attempt to gauge that type of pitch for ball-strike challenge can amount to guessing, said Dodgers catcher Chuckie Robinson. \u201cWhen you are behind the baseball,\u201d rather than moving sideways, \u201cyou\u2019ve got a better view of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Freeman expressed surprise that the pitch could\u2019ve been ruled a strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe it makes up for the strikeout,\u201d he said, referring to an incorrect third strike on him earlier in the game.<\/p>\n
Surviving quality work by King in the nine-pitch duel, Freeman fouled off three different types of full-count pitches.<\/p>\n
The Dodgers did other Dodgers things, too, on a day when King would\u2019ve handled most lineups.<\/p>\n
Shohei Ohtani went off the plate to poke an opposite-field, run-scoring single for a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
When King threw his only fat one out of his 90 pitches, Betts lined it for a two-run single.<\/p>\n
Reprising a season theme, Padres relievers did their jobs very well. Not many other Padres did the same.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s on to Wrigley Field for three games against the Cubs, a wild-card rival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s begin with a reality check. Compared with the Padres and almost every other team, the Dodgers boast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,1165,4332,4333,853,774,57,3224,4331,4,18,185,3546],"class_list":["post-738402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-baseball","tag-dodgers","tag-la","tag-la-dodgers","tag-ladodgers","tag-latest-headlines","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesdodgers","tag-mlb","tag-san-diego-padres","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116832357841019598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}