Forty minutes after the last out, as San Diego Padres players were celebrating on the field in front of their fans, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was finishing a very difficult postgame media session.
“The shock factor is very high,” Roberts said. “Disappointment is very high. It’s crushing … hugely disappointing how it ended. I think that right now it just stings a lot more in the moment. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to sort of look back and appreciate what we did do.”
What the Dodgers did accomplish was win a franchise-record 111 games in the regular season — only to be eliminated in four games in the National League Division Series by a Padres team they dominated by a 14-5 count during the regular season.
And it was not only that the Dodgers lost; it was how they lost Game 4 to the Padres, 5-3.
They were leading 3-0 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, nine outs away from forcing the series back to Dodger Stadium for a decisive fifth game Sunday.
And the Padres scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh, eliminating the Dodgers with a third straight win.
“The Mets, the Dodgers, we can beat anybody,” said Manny Machado. “This is just the start. I think we can still play better.”
The Padres will open the NL Championship Series on Tuesday in San Diego against the Philadelphia Phillies.
It was Jake Cronenworth who capped the Padres’ five-run seventh with a two-out, two-run tiebreaking single. Austin Nola, Ha-Seong Kim and Juan Soto drove in runs earlier in the seventh before Cronenworth lined his single to center off Alex Vesia to put the Padres ahead.
It was an inning with many twists and turns.
Jurickson Profar opened the seventh by drawing a walk from Dodgers reliever Tommy Kahnle. Trent Grisham followed with a single, moving Profar to third. Nola then drove in Profar with an infield single off the glove of Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman.
Yency Almonte relieved Kahnle. Kim greeted Almonte with a double inside the third-base bag, scoring Grisham and moving Nola to third. Soto followed with a line-drive single to right, scoring Nola to tie the game and placing runners at the corners. Almonte then struck out Machado and retired Brandon Drury, keeping the runners at the corners with two outs.
After throwing one strike to Cronenworth, Almonte was replaced by the left-handed Vesia to face the left-handed hitter. On the next pitch, Soto trotted into second on defensive indifference. Cronenworth then lined his two-run single to center.
Freddie Freeman broke up a scoreless tie with a two-run double off Joe Musgrove in the third inning and the Dodgers added a third run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly by Will Smith.
Mookie Betts drew a walk from Musgrove with one out in the third. Trea Turner followed with a double to left, putting runners at second and third, and Freeman drove in both with a double down the line to right.
Betts drew a walk to open the seventh off Padres reliever Steven Wilson. Turner followed with a single and Wilson hit Freeman with a pitch to load the bases with no one out. But the only run scored on Smith’s sac fly to left. Left-handed reliever Tim Hill came on to strike out Max Muncy and get Justin Turner on a grounder to short.
Left-hander Tyler Anderson started for the Dodgers and gave up two hits and two walks, with six strikeouts in five scoreless innings. Musgrove allowed two runs on six hits and three walks, with eight strikeouts in six innings.
Hill (1-0) got the win and Josh Hader got his third save of the NLDS — striking out Betts, Trea Turner and Freeman in the ninth. Almonte (0-1) was charged with the loss.
“You’ve got to give the Padres credit,” said Roberts. “They outplayed us this series. I think that I don’t want to take anything away from those guys because they earned this series victory.”
–By Bill Center, Field Level Media
