If there’s such a thing as an October dress rehearsal, this is it.
A rivalry series with the National League West’s top two teams. A division crown hanging in the balance. A possible postseason preview between baseball’s winningest team and the one that has been playing best in the season’s second half.
For a late September showcase, the stakes at Dodger Stadium this week can’t be much higher. And in a series-opening 4-2 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, the Dodgers hardly could have come out looking more flat.
Right down to the final at-bat.
After eight innings of wasted chances and stranded baserunners, the Dodgers suffered one last gut punch in the bottom of the ninth, when Miguel Rojas grounded into a game-ending, crowd-silencing triple play — all while Shohei Ohtani was standing on deck as the potential game-winning run.
It was the final indignity in what was the Dodgers’ eighth loss to the Padres in 11 games, a setback that trimmed the team’s division lead to two games. If they don’t change things the next two nights, that gap could disappear by the end of the week. And if they end up choking away the division, an already complicated postseason path could grow even more daunting.
The Padres — who clinched a playoff spot while improving to 41-17 since the All-Star break, the best record in the majors — were better in practically every facet.
On the mound, San Diego starter Michael King outdueled Dodgers rookie Landon Knack. While King gave up just an unearned run in five innings, Knack ran out of gas in a four-inning, four-run outing; a concerning result for an unproven pitcher who likely will start in the postseason.
At the plate, the Padres (91-66) also reigned supreme, repeatedly manufacturing runs in an eight-hit display while the Dodgers (93-64) stranded seven men on base and went two for 10 with runners in scoring position.
Most of all, the Padres played cleaner and — in a continuation of a trend Dodgers manager Dave Roberts highlighted coming into this series — seemingly with more intensity.
Their lone miscue came in the bottom of the first, when shortstop Xander Bogaerts fired high on a throw to first that allowed Ohtani to score from second (Ohtani led the inning off with a double, breaking a Dodgers record with his 95th extra-base hit).
From there, it was the Dodgers who made one sloppy mistake after the next.
A failed double steal ended the first inning, squandering an opportunity to tack on to a 1-0 lead with runners on the corners.
In the second, Mookie Betts struck out to strand the bases loaded, going down swinging on a sweeper well out of the zone.
In the third, a one-walk by Teoscar Hernández was quickly negated when he got doubled off on a lineout by Max Muncy.
A half-inning later, the Padres turned the 2-1 lead they had taken on Jake Cronenworth’s second-inning home run into a 4-1 edge by wearing down Knack in a three-hit, 39-pitch rally.
The Dodgers did little to threaten the rest of the way.
Switch-hitter Tommy Edman popped out with two on to end the sixth, after Padres manager Mike Shildt summoned right-hander Jeremiah Estrada to flip Edman to the left side, where he was batting only .200.
The seventh inning featured Rojas hitting into a double play and Ohtani striking out on an awkward swing against lock-down Padres left-hander Tanner Scott.
Then, after the Dodgers stranded a two-out double from Hernández in the eighth, the game ended in stunning sequence in the ninth, with Rojas hitting a ground ball to third that the Padres turned for a triple play.
Now, it will take back-to-back wins for the Dodgers to clinch the division at home, and at least one to ensure they enter the season’s final weekend still alone in first place.