Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s uneasy Game 1 start a fluke or a worrying sign?
The Dodgers anointed Shohei Ohtani as the highest-paid player in baseball history last December. In his first postseason game with the Dodgers, the $700-million man delivered: a home run, two hits, two runs scored, three runs driven in.
The Dodgers anointed Yoshinobu Yamamoto as the highest-paid pitcher (outside of Ohtani) in baseball history last December. In his first postseason game with the Dodgers, the $325-million man did not deliver.
Yamamoto put the Dodgers in a 3-0 hole in the first inning. He gave up two more runs in the third. He did not see the fourth.
In the end, none of that mattered. The Dodgers scored more runs in one game Saturday than they did in their entire postseason last year. Their bullpen pitched six shutout innings.
Shohei Ohtani showing more emotion at the plate: ‘This guy is not just a robot’
Shohei Ohtani punctuated his score-tying home run on Saturday night with a violent bat flip and a primal scream, the latest in a long line of demonstrative on-field displays from a two-way star who rarely displayed such emotion during his six years with the Angels.
Part of that, manager Dave Roberts said, is Ohtani being more comfortable in his surroundings and with his new teammates after signing a 10-year, $700-million deal with the Dodgers last December. The fact that Ohtani is finally playing in October for a team with the best record in baseball after six losing seasons in Anaheim also helps.
“I think over the course of the season, he’s become who he intrinsically is,” Roberts said. “He’s very isolated, very quiet, he stays to himself, private. But I do think that naturally, he is a goofy person. He’s fun-loving. He’s a crazy good competitor.
“When he sees people having fun, enjoying themselves in moments, I think we’ve seen more [of this behavior]. I think that’s a good thing for him because it’s honest. And it’s good for our players to see that, man, this guy is not just a robot. He’s like a real person who has emotions. I think this is good for everybody.”
Freddie Freeman’s ‘borderline miracle’ stolen base in NLDS Game 1 gives Dodgers chills
It wasn’t the most stunning October moment delivered by a gimpy Dodgers player in Chavez Ravine. That honor will always go to Kirk Gibson, who hobbled around the bases on two bum knees after his walk-off home run off Oakland Athletic closer Dennis Eckersley landed in the right-field pavilion in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
But it was up there.
After leading off the third inning of Saturday night’s National League Division Series-opening 7-5 victory over the the San Diego Padres with a single, Freddie Freeman — playing on a right ankle that was so severely sprained doctors told him “this is a four- to six-week [injured list] stint” — took off for second base.
Bottom of the Dodgers’ order made an impact in Game 1
The Dodgers’ lineup is a lot more potent when there are runners on base for Shohei Ohtani, and with the slugger in the leadoff spot, it is incumbent upon the bottom of the order to produce, preferably like it did in Game 1 of the National League Division Series.
The team’s sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth batters — Will Smith, Gavin Lux, Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas — combined for five hits, two walks and four runs on Saturday night to help the Dodgers to a 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres.
“There’s no easy out down there,” third baseman Max Muncy said. “With Miggy Ro being who he is this year, adding Tommy, Lux coming back into his own, it’s been really big for us. It just makes the lineup so deep, and it makes it really difficult [for opponents] to skip Shohei. It’s hard to not pitch to Shohei when there are a bunch of guys on base.”
Smith led off the second inning of the best-of-five series opener with a walk, Lux followed with a single to center field, and both scored when Ohtani lined a two-out, three-run home run to right field off Padres starter Dylan Cease to tie the score 3-3.
Edman, the switch-hitting utility man acquired from the St. Louis Cardinals at the trade deadline, sparked a three-run fourth-inning rally with a bunt single.
Rojas, who had one of the best offensive seasons in his 11-year career, with a .283 average, .748 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, six homers and 36 RBIs, followed with a single to left-center field.
Ohtani’s broken-bat single to center loaded the bases, and Edman scored on a wild pitch to trim San Diego’s lead to 5-4. Mookie Betts was intentionally walked to load the bases, Freddie Freeman grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Rojas forced out at home, and Teoscar Hernández lined a two-run single to center for a 6-5 Dodgers lead.
Smith also reached on an error to lead off the fifth and scored a big insurance run on Edman’s double-play grounder. Edman opened the eighth with a single to center and stole second base but didn’t score.
“Our mentality is to grind out pitches and have good at-bats regardless of the results,” Rojas said before Game 2 on Sunday. “If we have good at-bats and we get the starter to throw a lot of pitches like we did [in Game 1] — Cease was in trouble because we got a lot of 3-and-2 counts, and then Shohei got a good pitch to hit up in the zone.
“If we get quality at-bats from the bottom of the lineup, the top will get better pitches to hit and do damage, because that’s what they’re here for.”
Freddie Freeman back in the starting lineup for Game 2
Freddie Freeman, who got two hits and stole a base while continuing to recover from a sprained right ankle on Saturday night, was back in the lineup for Game 2 on Sunday, a decision that manager Dave Roberts said was “much easier” than it was on Saturday, when the team did not deem the first baseman fit to play until 2½ hours before first pitch.
The Dodgers posted a lineup with Freeman batting third four hours before first pitch on Sunday.
“I think that he is in the same spot [physically], but I do feel there’s a little more comfort for Freddie, knowing kind of where the floor is for him,” Roberts said. “Whereas [on Saturday], you’re just trying to figure out what this means and how it feels, he feels like he can get through today and manage it. So we certainly feel more confident today.”
Take that! Vengeful Dodgers roar in postseason-opening win over reeling Padres
For a first act, it was deafening madness.
For a first step, it was a dizzying leap.
For a Game 1, it was a Game 7, nine innings fought and cheered and inhaled by more than 53,000 bouncing fans as if it were the last bit of baseball on Earth.
Wait, the Dodgers are going to play more games like this?
Yes, absolutely, at least 10 more, as many as 18 more, and bring it on, more, more, more, the senses can’t get enough of what the Dodgers brought to the San Diego Padres on Saturday night in their 7-5 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers’ starting lineup for NLDS Game 2 against the Padres
Here’s the Dodgers’ starting lineup for Game 2 of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres:
Game 1 recap: Shohei Ohtani powers Dodgers past Padres
The redemption tour began just as the Dodgers imagined it.
With a momentous home-run swing from Shohei Ohtani.
One inning into their postseason opener Saturday night, the Dodgers were having nightmare flashbacks to this time last year, facing yet another early deficit after yet another poor performance from their Game 1 starting pitcher.
The 53,028 towel-waving fans at Dodger Stadium had been silenced. In the visiting dugout, the San Diego Padres were riding a sudden jolt of momentum.
Dodgers vs. Padres: How to watch and betting odds for Game 2
In the Dodgers’ 7-5 win in the opening game of the National League Division Series, Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run home run to tie the game. And six scoreless innings from the Dodgers’ bullpen kept the lead from changing.
The Dodgers continue the postseason Sunday when they face the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium. The game is scheduled to start at 5:03 p.m. PDT and will air on FS1. It will air on 570 AM and 1020 AM (Español) in the Los Angeles area.
Here are the betting odds for Game 2:
Here’s the TV schedule for the rest of best-of-five series (all times Pacific):
Tuesday: Game 3 — Dodgers at San Diego, 6:08 p.m. | FS1
*Wednesday: Game 4 — Dodgers at San Diego, 6:08 p.m. | FS1
*Friday: Game 5 — San Diego at Dodgers | 5:08 p.m. | Fox
*—if necessary