*Photo from Sporting News*
San Diego leads series 2-1
They've been waiting for so long. Now, they're right on the cusp. Jake Cronenworth drove in a run, Trent Grisham homered, and the San Diego Padres defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 2-1 victory on Friday night in San Diego.
Splitting the series 1-1 in Los Angeles, the Padres came home to an electric atmosphere. Padres fans were waiting for their first home playoff win at Petco Park since 2004. They were finally able to celebrate, after rallying the Padres on all game, highlighted by "Beat L-A" chants.
Now, because of that, the Padres have a 2-1 series lead against the Dodgers, their most hated rival. The Padres, with one more win, can finally knock the Dodgers off and advance to their first NLCS since 1998, when Bill Clinton was the U.S. president. Know what happened that year? They made it all the way to the World Series.
Padres 3rd baseman Manny Machado said of the state of the series "One win away. But they’re a good ballclub over there. They’re going to bring it all tomorrow. We’ve just got to go out there and take care of our business. We’ve got big-game Joe on the mound."
San Diego was able to get on the board right away in this one. With Machado and Juan Soto on base, Cronenworth lined a single up the middle, bringing home Soto to give the Padres a 1-0 lead. It remained that way for a few innings, until Grisham belted a solo home run in the 4th inning, doubling the lead to 2-0.
One inning later, in the 5th, Mookie Betts got the Dodgers on the board. He flew out to Soto in right field, but it was deep enough to score Trayce Thompson from 3rd and make the deficit 2-1. That was all they could manage, with the Padres pitching stepping it up the rest of the way.
Padres manager Bob Melvin said of the pitching performance that "I think anytime you hold a lineup like that down like we have here, that’s hard to do. But we feel like it’s a really deep bullpen, a lot of power arms pitching well toward the end of the season, into the postseason, inspired even a little bit more so."
It was Blake Snell on the mound for the Padres, who put on a show. Snell allowed just one run, striking out 6 hitters in 5 1/3 innings. Nick Martinez finished the 6th before Luis Garcia and Robert Suarez threw an inning. Josh Hader picked up his second save of the round with a shutout 9th inning.
The Dodgers started Tony Gonsolin, and he had a quick hook, getting through 1 1/3 innings on one earned run. Andrew Heaney pitched the next 3 innings, allowing one run himself. Yency Almonte, Alex Vesia, Evan Phillips, and Tommy Kahnle all pitched after Gonsolin and Heaney.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the series deficit that "It was a very good regular season, but as we said before, none of that matters. We’re in a five-game series against a very good ballclub that we’re familiar with, and the team that plays the best baseball is going to win the series. And up to this point, they’ve played better than we have."
Up next, the series continues with game 4 on Saturday night. Joe Musgrove takes the mound for the Padres as they try to cement a spot in the NLCS, while Tyler Anderson starts for the Dodgers as they aim to force a game 5 back home.
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