by Cary Osborne
The Padres bloodied the Dodgers’ lip with the first punch of the National League Division Series on Saturday on a three-run home run by Manny Machado in the first inning. They bruised the Dodgers with a two-run third inning.
But this Dodger team showed something that hasn’t been seen in the postseason in years — a counterpunch.
And it was Shohei Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández — two players the Dodgers didn’t have on past postseason teams — that landed the most impactful blows.
The Dodgers’ top two run producers in 2024 helped lift the Dodgers to a 7–5 win at Dodger Stadium to give Los Angeles a 1–0 lead in the series.
“It was good to see us show some resilience and take a blow and respond the way we did,” said manager Dave Roberts. “It just really speaks to the character of this group. And I talked about this for a few weeks, we need to fight, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Ohtani hit his first career postseason home run in his first career postseason game with a three-run blast in the second inning off Padres starter Dylan Cease to tie the score at 3–3. Hernández, with the Dodgers trailing 5–4 in the fourth inning, hit a sinking liner in front of center fielder Jackson Merrill. Two runs scored on the hit to give the Dodgers a 6–5 lead.
The Dodgers scored six runs in the entire 2023 postseason.
The Dodgers last led in a postseason on Oct. 15, 2022, in Game 4 of the NLDS in San Diego. They led 3–0 in the seventh inning of that game before the Padres scored five times in the bottom half of the inning to run away with the game and the series.
The Dodgers have ridden a theme of resiliency and fight throughout 2024. This game was emblematic of it.
Ohtani, in his second at-bat against Cease, threw his hips and ripped a fastball into the Right Field Pavilion for the three-run homer.
The Dodgers’ single-season home run record holder knew it immediately. He watched, then full of emotion, tossed his bat aside and threw his fists in celebration.
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But the Padres swiped the lead right back in the top of the third inning on a Xander Bogaerts two-run double off Dodger starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
The Dodgers knabbed a run on a wild pitch in the fourth before Hernández’s clutch two-out single that gave the Dodgers the lead.
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Gritty at-bats, gritty pitching.
Yamamoto left after three innings, having allowed seven baserunners, a home run, three runs and throwing a wild pitch.
The Dodgers had another counterpunch — its bullpen.
The Dodger bullpen covered 18 outs with a string of five relievers — from Ryan Brasier to Alex Vesia to Evan Phillips to Michael Kopech to Blake Treinen.
The tensest moments were the eighth and ninth innings.
San Diego loaded the bases on three walks in the eighth. Treinen struck out Donovan Solano to end the threat.
Treinen faced Machado with two on and two outs in the ninth inning. He struck him out on his 39th pitch of the game.
The Padres were 2-for-19 against the Dodger bullpen.
“It’s really difficult for a playoff team to get into and feel comfortable playing in the first game of the postseason, especially with the long layoff,” Ohtani said. “But everybody really contributed today — the entire team — including the bullpen, especially.”
NLDS Game 1: The Dodgers punch back to take early series lead was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.