LOS ANGELES — Jurickson Profar hit a go-ahead single in the sixth inning, Manny Machado and Jake Cronenworth hit home runs and the San Diego Padres evened the National League Division Series at one win apiece with a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
The Padres’ bullpen delivered four more scoreless innings after tossing 5 1/3 shutout frames in Game 1 of the best-of-five set. San Diego earned its first-ever postseason victory against Los Angeles in five tries.
Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Trea Turner homered for the Dodgers, who won a franchise-best 111 games in the regular season but now must win twice in three games in order to advance.
Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw gave up three runs on six hits in five innings with no walks and six strikeouts. Padres starter Yu Darvish (2-0) allowed three runs on seven hits over five innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Unlike Game 1, when the Dodgers grabbed the early lead, the Padres went up first on Machado’s opening-inning home run to left, his second of the postseason.
The Dodgers answered quickly with Freeman’s first-inning home run and a blast in the second from Muncy to take a 2-1 lead. Machado hit an RBI double in the third to even the score again, and Cronenworth rolled an RBI ground ball to first base two batters later.
The Dodgers kept their long-ball show going in the third when Turner tied the score 3-3 on a home run to left, his second in two games.
The Padres pushed in front in the sixth against Brusdar Graterol (0-1). After an error by Turner at shortstop put two Padres runners aboard, Profar rolled an RBI single to right field for a 4-3 advantage.
Los Angeles looked set to even the score with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, putting runners on the corners to end Darvish’s night. But hard-throwing right-hander Robert Suarez struck out Justin Turner and got Gavin Lux to ground into a double play.
Suarez escaped his own jam in the seventh. A Cody Bellinger single and a Mookie Betts double put two aboard with one out. Suarez got Trea Turner to ground out, intentionally walked Freeman to load the bases, then got Will Smith to fly out.
Cronenworth’s home run in the eighth off right-hander Blake Treinen gave the Padres a 5-3 lead.
In addition to two scoreless innings from Suarez, Nick Martinez and Josh Hader kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard, with Hader recording four outs for his first save of the postseason.
–By Doug Padilla, Field Level Media
