Dodgers’ playoff party becomes NLDS nail-biter in Game 1 win over Padres
What started as a party turned into a nail-biter, an almost certain October blowout instead devolving into a sudden postseason stress test.
The Dodgers knew they didn’t have a traditional pitching staff.
They didn’t care about their unsettled hierarchy in the ninth inning.
During a franchise-record 111-win season, it rarely mattered — not when veteran closer Craig Kimbrel battled maddening inconsistency for most of the year, and not when they removed him from the role a month ago in favor of a closer-by-committee approach.
All along, they insisted this was the best playoff bullpen they’ve had in years, that they possessed the requisite depth and versatility to navigate a long October run on the mound.
Julio Urías earned his place as a Game 1 starter, but he had uneven performance against the Padres and must deliver more for the Dodgers this postseason.
And on Tuesday, during their playoff opener in the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres, they provided resounding affirmation in a 5-3 Game 1 win.
After an early five-run lead dwindled to two down the stretch, the Dodgers got four scoreless innings of relief from Evan Phillips, Alex Vesia, Brusdar Graterol and Chris Martin to take a 1-0 lead in this best-of-five series.
Phillips retired the heart of the Padres’ order in the sixth inning. Vesia and Graterol paired in the eighth to do the same. Then in the ninth, it was Martin who came trotting to the mound, with the once-unheralded trade-deadline acquisition bringing Chavez Ravine to its feet with his first career playoff save.
Game 2 will be Wednesday night at 5:37. And already, the Dodgers’ staunch belief in the bullpen has been further cemented.
“It’s just the luxury, the latitude that we have with our guys,” manager Dave Roberts said. “[They’re] willing to pitch in any inning, any leverage.”
Early on Tuesday night, it seemed unlikely the relievers would factor into the final decision.
The Dodgers scored twice in the first inning, on a Trea Turner home run and Max Muncy RBI single. They added three more in the third, getting doubles from Turner, Will Smith and Gavin Lux.
Julio Urías, meanwhile, was rolling in his first career Game 1 start, striking out six with just one baserunner in his first four innings.
And by the start of the fifth, a blue-towel-waving crowd of 52,407 was expecting the Dodgers to bury the Padres — against whom they went 14-5 this season — once again.
From there, however, the game changed direction.
Urías lost his groove, giving up three quick runs to bring his night to an end. The Dodgers lineup fell silent against a string of Padres relievers, recording 14 straight outs over the final five innings.
As a result, Roberts had no choice but to put his trust in the bullpen — looking for the right “lanes” to line up his most trusted relievers.
“They’ve come together, really, as a really good solid group,” Roberts said.
Phillips was summoned first, tasked with facing the Padres’ best hitters, Juan Soto and Manny Machado, after a breakthrough season in which he emerged as the Dodgers’ best reliever.
The right-hander got into trouble. Soto drew a leadoff walk. Machado got aboard as the tying run on a dribbler that stayed fair up the third base line.
But then Phillips rebounded, fanning pinch-hitter Josh Bell with a cutter before inducing Wil Myers’ ground ball to second, where Lux and Turner turned a difficult double play to put a jolt back into an increasingly anxious stadium.
“That was the play of the game,” Roberts said. “It allowed us to line up the pitching [the rest of the way].”
Vesia, the team’s only high-leverage left-hander, got five outs across the seventh and eighth innings, punctuating his dominance over the left-handed portion of the Padres lineup with a fly out from Soto, the superstar slugger the Padres picked up in a blockbuster trade-deadline day deal.
After Graterol finished the eighth — he needed just one pitch to retire Machado, the Padres’ most-valuable-player candidate, on a flyout — the Dodgers turned to their own important, albeit far less-celebrated, deadline addition for the ninth-inning save.
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While Martin was part of the Atlanta Braves’ World Series team last year, he had never pitched a ninth inning in the postseason and had only nine career regular-season saves.
When the Dodgers acquired him from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Zach McKinstry back in July, the 36-year-old veteran wasn’t having a very strong 2022 campaign, either.
But after taking off down the stretch, when he posted a 1.46 earned-run average in 26 games with the Dodgers, Martin handled Tuesday’s late-game pressure with ease, giving up only a soft two-out single to Jake Cronenworth before sealing the win with a Ha-Seong Kim fly out on the very next pitch.
“I feel like roles are just kind of a thing, maybe — I don’t know — of the past,” Martin said afterward.
Under this current iteration of the Dodgers bullpen — which posted the second-best team reliever ERA in the majors — Roberts seemed to agree, noting “We certainly could see something completely different tomorrow” if the team is protecting a late lead again.
At the start of the season, the Dodgers would have never expected to rely so heavily on pitchers like Phillips (a waiver pick up last year) and Vesia (a low-profile trade acquisition before last season), or Martin and Yency Almote (a minor-league signing this spring who is also a key cog on the back end).
Even Graterol endured inconsistency that at times left his place on the roster unclear.
But over the course of this year, they made up for the losses of Daniel Hudson and Blake Treinen (who made the NLDS roster despite shoulder troubles but has limitations).
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They surpassed veterans like Kimbrel and David Price, who were both left off the NLDS roster, for high-leverage situations.
And on a Dodgers team that effectively ran out of pitching last postseason, in part because of its elongated path as a wild-card team, they helped bolster a staff the club believes is capable of summiting a World Series mountaintop again.
For one night at least, as that climb began Tuesday, it was the bullpen that solidified the Dodgers’ important first step.
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