Cody Snavely
NLDS Game 3, 10/8/2024: Dodgers 5, Padres 6
SAN DIEGO, CA — After an emotional, hostile, and embracing game two of the National League Division Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a game in which they were blown out losing by eight runs to the San Diego Padres, will travel down to Petco Park with the rivalry at an all-time high.
Despite all that, the Dodgers enter this one in a good spot, with the series tied at one game; however, with only three games left, home-field advantage is now in the Padres’ court, and the Dodgers have lost six straight road postseason games dating back to the 2021 season.
On the mound for the Dodgers will be postseason hero right-handed pitcher Walker Buehler, who is making his first postseason start since the 2021 National League Championship Series against the Atlanta Braves after missing the last two postseasons recovering from Tommy John Surgery.
It was a lukewarm season for the 30-year-old pending free agent where the once dominant ace struggled for most of the year, finishing with a 1-6 record and a career-high 5.38 ERA. However, the term “big game pitcher” certainly applied to Walker, who in his career has a 2.94 ERA and over one hundred strikeouts in his postseason career.
Taking the rubber for the Friars would be righty Michael King, who the Padres acquired over the winter in the Juan Soto blockbuster trade with the New York Yankees.
King is coming off a dazzling performance in the wild-card round, where the righty tossed seven scoreless innings while striking out twelve Braves hitters on just eighty-nine pitches.
King, 29, went 13-9 with a 2.95 and collected over two hundred strikeouts in his last start against the Dodgers back in the last week of September. He looks brilliant, going five innings and allowing just three hits and one run in a game-one win.
However, facing the Dodgers has been a challenge for the righty throughout his career. In four appearances against them this season, King is 2-0 with a 3.10 ERA.
Entering tonight, tensions were at an all-time high after multiple interactions with the Dodgers faithful in game two with Jurickson Profar, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts‘s comments on Manny Machado, and Max Muncy saying that the Padre’s antics are just a ploy to get under their skin.
For the first time this series, the Dodgers would strike first as Mookie Betts would finally hit a ball to left field that Profar couldn’t catch for a one-out solo home run, giving the Dodgers a quick 1-0 lead. Betts now has three career hits off King. All three are home runs.
However, trouble would arise in the bottom of the second inning after a Manny Machado single, Freddie Freeman throwing error, and an infield miscue between veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas and second baseman Gavin Lux, and the Padres would tie it.
Former Dodger David Peralta would break it open, hitting a double down the first base line just past the outstretched glove of Freddie Freeman, bringing the two more runs home. All in all, the Padres would put up a crooked number capped off by a massive two-run home run by Fernando Tatís.
However, one of the great characteristics of a champion is how to handle the pressure, and the Dodgers, in the top of the third inning, answered right back. After now looking at a five-run deficit, the Dodgers would muster together back-to-back-to-back hits from Rojas, Ohtani, and Betts. After a Freddie Freeman flyout, Teoscar Hernández would hit a chest-high fastball to straightaway center field for a grand slam, bringing the Dodgers within one run.
Despite an atrocious third inning, which was in large part out of Buehler’s hands, he gave the Dodgers what they needed the most: length, finding some way to go five innings, and keeping the Dodgers within one.
Padres right-handed starter Michael King would also turn the keys over to the Padres bullpen, giving San Diego five innings and allowing five runs on five hits but two massive home runs to Betts and Hernández.
For the last four frames, it would be decided by both team’s bullpens, which ranked among the top in the National League in the second half.
Both teams’ bullpen would step up massively, shutting the door for both offenses. The Dodgers, despite their best efforts, could not complete the comeback and would be on the brink of elimination at Petco Park, an eerily similar situation to that faced by the team in the 2022 National League Division Series.
Game four is at 6:06 PM PT tomorrow night, and it’s win-or-go-home time.
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