By Ricardo Lopez Juarez
08 Oct 2024, 11:44 PM EDT
Fernando Tatis Jr. capped a six-run rally in the second inning with a two-run homer and The San Diego Padres put the Los Angeles Dodgers against the wall by beating them 6-5 in game 3 of the exciting Division Series of the National League between the two bitter rivals from Southern California.
San Diego is up 2-1 in the best-of-five series and this Wednesday will seek to eliminate the Dodgers in game 4, which will take place again at their stadium.
After Both teams combined to score 11 runs within the first two and a half innings.the game became a tense pitching duel played in an electric atmosphere at Petco Park in San Diego.
Venezuelan Robert Suárez, San Diego’s fifth pitcher, retired three batters in order to seal the victory for the Padres and obtain the save.
The Dodgers opened the scoring in the first inning with a home run by Mookie Betts, in a play identical to the one in Game 2 when left fielder Jurickson Profar stole the ball from the fans in the stands. This time the ball left Profar’s glove and with that ended the slump for Betts, who was hitless in his last 22 postseason at-bats.
Padres take advantage of Dodgers’ defensive errors
But soon came the offensive explosion of the Padres, caused by the defensive errors of the Dodgers, first one by first baseman Freddie Freeman when trying to throw out Manny Machado, who was running from first to second base, and later the costly mistake by shortstop Miguel Rojas, who on a grounder ideal for a double play decided to do it all himself going towards second base, but he arrived late and the two runners stood still while Machado scored the 1-1.
It is worth mentioning that both Freeman (ankle) and Rojas (groin) are playing with injuries.
David Peralta followed with a two-run double to make it 3-1. Later, Kyle Higashioka made it 4-1 with a sacrifice fly and after the second out of the inning came Fernando Tatis with a 396-foot bomb to the second deck in left field to open the score at 6-1 after two innings against the Dodgers’ defeated starter, Walker Buehler, the man who suffered the theft of a luxury watch a few days ago at the Santa Anita racetrack.
The Dodgers were in serious trouble due to the large deficit on the scoreboard. But they showed character in their next drive. Miguel Rojas, Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts loaded the bases with consecutive singles and after one out The power of Dominican Teoscar Hernández appeared, who blew the center back wall for a grand slam that tightened the score to 6-5 in the blink of an eye against Padres starting pitcher Michael King, who took credit for the victory.
Shohei Ohtani had a discreet night for the Dodgers with one hit in four at-bats. The Dodgers only had six hits.
Game 4 will be this Wednesday at 6:08 pm Pacific. Both teams have yet to decide on their starting pitchers.
This It is the third time in five years that the Dodgers and Padres meet in the National League Division Series.. Los Angeles won in 2020 en route to its World Series championship, while San Diego triumphed in 2022 to advance to the ALCS.
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