For a primary act, it was deafening insanity.
For a primary step, it was a dizzying leap.
For a Game 1, it was a Game 7, 9 innings fought and cheered and inhaled by greater than 53,000 bouncing followers as if it have been the final little bit of baseball on Earth.
Wait, the Dodgers are going to play extra video games like this?
Yes, completely, no less than 10 extra, as many as 18 extra, and convey it on, extra, extra, extra, the senses can’t get sufficient of what the Dodgers delivered to the San Diego Padres on Saturday night time of their 7-5 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
It started with blue flags flapping from the dugout roofs and blue rags raised and waved via the rollicking full home.
It ended with Blake Treinen placing out Donovan Solano with the bases loaded within the eighth, then placing out Manny Machado with the tying runs on base to complete the ninth.
From begin to end, pure insanity, amid a rabble that by no means calmed, by no means quieted, by no means stop.
“We’re going to fight, every pitch, every at-bat,” Teoscar Hernández mentioned.
The Padres shortly led by three. Boom! Shohei Ohtani caught them with one swing.
The Padres shortly led once more by two. Bang! The Dodgers handed them with a wild pitch and a Hernández rocket.
The Padres have been reeling. The Dodgers have been unrelenting, piling on after a Machado meltdown and ending them off with a blistering bullpen that threw six shutout innings.
More, yeah, extra, the Dodgers want extra of this type of fireplace if they're to thrust back their October first-round demons and end off the Padres in a best-of-five rematch of two seasons in the past.
“I could really feel the intensity of the stadium before the game began, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Ohtani mentioned via interpreter Will Ireton.
He wasn’t the one one having enjoyable. This was the Dodgers’ first playoff win in 725 days. Given their current historical past, this was arguably the most important Game 1 victory in a Dodgers postseason since Kirk Gibson went deep against the Oakland Athletics in 1988.
The Dodgers desperately wanted this type of night time to keep away from the sense of acquainted dread that will have descended upon the clubhouse with a loss. They desperately wanted to point out that they won't be embarrassed out of the postseason once more.
In greater than three hours that felt like three minutes Saturday, they proved all that and extra, extra, extra.
Back in 2022, the Padres received this sequence in 4 video games against a haughty Dodgers crew that lacked depth. That’s clearly not taking place this time; witness one play that led to zero runs however meant all the things.
In the third inning, whereas nursing a badly sprained ankle that just about stored him out of the lineup, Freddie Freeman stole second base.
Seriously, he stole second on one leg.
“If I can’t play the game the right way, I shouldn’t be out there,” Freeman mentioned. “I was doing good enough. Adrenaline took over. “
Dodgers baserunner Freddie Freeman beats the tag of San Diego second baseman Jake Cronenworth to steal second base in the third inning Saturday.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Last season, in this same series, the Arizona Diamondbacks swept a Dodgers team that lacked all offensive aggressiveness. That’s not happening this time; witness the start of the Dodgers’ fourth-inning, go-ahead rally.
It began when Tommy Edman laid down a perfect bunt to an uncovered left side of the infield.
Believe it, somebody in modern baseball actually bunted their way on base.
“Putting pressure, every pitch, every at-bat,” Hernandez mentioned. “Trying to pass it to the other guy. Trying to make situations.”
More fireplace, extra combat and, in fact, the Dodgers have added one weapon they have been lacking the final two years, arguably the best weapon within the historical past of baseball.
More, extra, extra Ohtani! He is formally unreal, he's undeniably from one other world, and he proved it once more twice in three innings that modified the sport.
“He injected an absolute lightning bolt into the stadium,” Max Muncy mentioned. “From then on it was, ‘All right, we’ve got this. This is not the same as years past.’”
In the Dodgers’ 7-5 win within the opening recreation of the National League Division Series, Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run dwelling run to tie the sport. And six scoreless innings from the Dodgers’ bullpen stored the lead from altering.
With two out and two runners on base within the second inning whereas trailing 3-0, Ohtani fouled a ball off his left knee and he grabbed the knee and winced in ache. But, hey, keep in mind, that is Superman. He knocked the following four-seam fastball 111 mph into the right-field pavilion accompanied by a roar that made the press field actually sway. And overlook all of his normal outward politeness. His response to this newest little bit of ferocity was downright fierce, an angrily thrown bat and an prolonged howl.
After the Padres rebounded to attain a few extra runs off horrific starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto — extra on that later — right here got here Ohtani once more.
In the fourth, Superman got here up with two runners on base once more because of the shock bunt by Edman and a single by Miguel Rojas. This time, Ohtani broke his bat however swung so exhausting, the ball nonetheless floated into middle discipline for a bases-loading single. After a run scored on Adrian Morejon’s wild pitch, Hernandez lined a single to middle that scored two runs when rookie Jackson Merrill misplayed the brief hop.
That gave the Dodgers a one-run lead that elevated an inning later after Machado lazily uncorked a wild throw to first that led to a different Dodgers run.
Indeed, the consistently booed Machado homered within the first inning however ultimately got here unglued. The complete Padres crew appeared unnerved by the Dodgers’ fan noise and the Dodgers’ lineup assault.
“I’m just looking forward to throwing the first punch,” Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts mentioned earlier than the sport. “I’m expecting us to be ready for a fight.”
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run dwelling run within the second inning against the Padres in Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday night time.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
They did, they usually have been.
Roberts added that he felt a payback vibe all through the final week.
“I think there’s some intensity,” he mentioned. “Some want to pay some people back and show how good we are. And I like that. I like that feeling that’s resonating in our clubhouse.”
On Saturday night time that feeling resonated onto the sector with one exception.
This remains to be a crew with a beginning pitching downside.
The recreation started in rotation controversy, the Dodgers switching gears late within the week and beginning Yamamoto, the delicate, $325-million offseason funding who had pitched all of 4 video games since June.
It was a horrible thought. It was first-guessed by many, together with right here, as a horrible thought. It was a traditional case of the Dodgers’ famend mind belief outsmarting themselves.
Yamamoto supposedly recovered from a shoulder damage that value him almost three months this summer time, however he had pitched greater than 4 innings solely as soon as throughout his four-start comeback.
Their preliminary selection to begin Game 1, Jack Flaherty, was pushed again to Game 2, with the considering being that this fashion, each Flaherty and the delicate Yamamoto could possibly be obtainable for Game 5.
But who plans for Game 5 when the sequence hasn’t even began but? Why would you wish to maintain again your greatest obtainable starter to place Game 1 within the arms of a tender-shouldered pitcher who by no means has skilled a big-league October?
Yamamoto was terrible for nearly each one in every of his 60 pitches, giving up 5 runs on 5 hits with two walks and one strikeout and no person fooled.
If this occurred the previous two postseasons, the Dodgers would have been cooked. Not this time. Not this October. Not with this offense. Not with this burn.
“Our guys were relentless all night,” Roberts mentioned.
One win down, 10 wins to go.
More, extra, extra.
