by Cary Osborne
As far as the rest of this National League Division Series is concerned, three innings from the Dodgers’ 6–5 loss in Game 3 in San Diego on Tuesday are now crucial.
The Dodgers crumbled in the second inning with Walker Buehler on the mound — a combination of defensive miscues, maybe a little bad luck and two big hits from David Peralta and Fernando Tatis Jr. put Los Angeles in a 6–1 hole.
But Buehler rebounded in the third inning. He put up another zero in the fourth. And another in the fifth.
Say he allowed a run in the third or fourth or took on traffic in either inning. In a close game, the Dodgers would have had to stress their bullpen, possibly having to use one or two more arms than the three they used.
Instead, they have a few rested high-leverage arms in Evan Phillips and Blake Treinen, who didn’t pitch on Tuesday. They saved Alex Vesia — whose splits have been close to equal and both excellent.
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The Dodgers now trail the Padres 2–1 in the NLDS and play a potential elimination game in Game 4 on Wednesday.
The Dodgers’ hopes to extend the series to five games rest heavily on the Dodger relievers, with a bullpen game on the menu for Wednesday’s Game 4. Thanks to the five innings from Buehler, despite the veteran right-hander taking the loss on Tuesday, the Dodgers have a full list of items for the menu.
Anthony Banda and Daniel Hudson earned six outs on a combined 17 pitches — 14 for Banda, four for Hudson — on Tuesday. Michael Kopech threw 19 pitches.
“Certainly, this situation isn’t ideal, but I do feel that us being able to stay away from our leverage arms tonight, they’ve had three days off to then go into game four, and we kind of can push them a little bit more,” said manager Dave Roberts. “So I feel good in that respect, and I feel good with the length and the quality that we have for a potential game five. So yeah, not a great situation, but as far as winning a ball game tomorrow, I think we’re in a really good spot.”
If the Dodgers win Game 4 in San Diego, they have the choice of running out starters Jack Flaherty or Yoshinobu Yamamoto with a rested bullpen in Game 5 on Friday at Dodger Stadium.
But a big part of the if is also the Dodger offense.
Mookie Betts came alive with a first-inning home run, ending a 0-for-22 run in the postseason.
He was nearly robbed by Jurickson Profar again in left field.
“It was good to see Mookie swing the bat well,” Roberts said. “I think if you’re talking about a silver lining, Mookie, he swung the bat well tonight.”
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He also singled in the third inning. Betts scored on Teoscar Hernández’s grand slam in the third, which turned a 6–1 Padres lead into a 6–5 score.
The Hernández thunderbolt brought the Dodgers closer to erasing one of the largest deficits in their postseason history — the largest being a six-run deficit erased by the 1956 Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series.
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But the offense went flat after the grand slam going 0 for its next 16.
The Dodger 5–8 — Max Muncy, Will Smith, Gavin Lux and Tommy Edman — went a combined 0-for-15 in the game.
Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas — both playing injured — factored into a rough defensive third inning. Freeman made a play on Jackson Merrill groundball and threw to second base to try and get Manny Machado — the lead runner — out, and the throw clipped Machado, who had drifted into the infield grass on his path to second base. Both runners reached safely.
The next batter, Xander Bogaerts, grounded to Rojas, who was beaten to second base by Merrill and late on getting Bogaerts at first base. Machado scored.
Peralta followed with a two-run double.
Tatis Jr. capped off the inning with his third homer of the series.
“I thought Walker did a nice job of keeping his composure and still giving us some length and throwing some zeros after that,” Roberts said. “But again, when you give a good team extra outs it’s hard to throw up zeros.”
The offense will see Padres starter Dylan Cease again. Cease allowed five runs in 3 1/3 innings in Game 1.
NLDS: The Dodgers will now play to keep their season alive was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.