Column: Dodgers still know how to win, and the Padres are still baseball’s Chargers
SAN DIEGO — Compare the lineups of the Dodgers and San Diego Padres. The Padres’ is better. Observe the quality of their at-bats. The Padres are better. Watch their defenses. The Padres’ is better.
So how were the Dodgers able to leave Petco Park still in first place in the National League West? How were they able to win the last two of their three games here, even though they were outplayed for the majority of the series?
The Dodgers might not be as talented as they were in previous seasons, but they’re still the Dodgers.
“We play every out,” manager Dave Roberts said Sunday. “It’s kind of been who we have been.”
The Dodgers still know how to win — just like how the Padres still know how to lose.
The Dodgers overcame early mistakes before late heroics from Mookie Betts, Michael Busch and James Outman carried them to a series win over the Padres.
The Padres eliminated the Dodgers from the playoffs last year. They further improved their roster over the winter. Yet, somehow, they still find ways to lose unlosable games. They remain baseball’s version of the Chargers.
The Dodgers were behind by a run and down to their final out Sunday when Mookie Betts sent the game into extra innings with a homer off Padres closer Josh Hader. Rookies Michael Busch and James Outman vaulted the team to a 5-2 victory in the 10th inning, with Busch driving in Freddie Freeman with a single and Outman following with a two-run homer.
Before Betts’ home run, the Dodgers had only three hits. That was the same number of hits they had the entire game Saturday in a 2-1 victory.
“I think our staff keeping us in the game is the biggest thing,” Outman said.
In the series finale, the Dodgers were kept in a game they didn’t deserve to be in by Julio Urías and four relievers.
Urías was given every excuse to implode after he was failed by his defense in the first inning as Outman and Betts dropped catchable balls in the outfield that contributed to the Padres taking a 2-0 lead.
The Dodgers’ opening-day starter, the 26-year-old Urías didn’t respond to the misplays by shouting in frustration as he’d done in some previous starts. Instead, he regrouped and pitched into the sixth inning. The Dodgers didn’t collect their first hit against Padres starter Joe Musgrove until there were two outs in the fifth inning, but Urías wasn’t distracted by the absence of run support. Rookie second baseman Miguel Vargas allowed a routine grounder to skip by him in the fourth inning and Urías himself made an errant throw later in the same inning, but Urías didn’t let that stop him from making pitches when he had to make them.
Urías was charged with eight hits, which reflected the depth of the Padres’ lineup. Slumping Juan Soto remained a nonfactor offensively, but the Padres nonetheless had weapons up and down their order in the likes of Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Nelson Cruz and Jake Cronenworth.
The Dodgers’ No. 5 hitter was Jason Heyward, who joined the organization on a minor league contract.
But the Padres couldn’t widen the gap. And in the sixth inning, they gifted the Dodgers a run, with the stone-gloved Soto dropping a routine fly ball in left field to allow Freeman to reach second base. He scored on a double by Will Smith.
The Dodgers’ Southern California rivalry with the San Diego Padres could soon be going to South Korea for a regular-season series in 2024.
The Padres’ failure to tack on runs was ultimately their undoing. With two outs in the ninth inning, Betts worked a 3-and-1 count against Hader, who entered the game with 11 saves and an 0.60 earned-run average.
Betts launched a 96-mph fastball into the stands.
“He’s the best player on the field,” Roberts said. “He’s always got to believe that.”
Busch, who entered the game as an eighth-inning pinch hitter, and Outman, who looked lost over the last two weeks, finished what Betts started.
Outman credited Urías with helping him forget about his botched play in the first inning.
“We’re able to flush it out because we’re in the game,” Outman said. “There’s no reason to dwell on it because we need runs now.”
After a disconcerting start, the bullpen has also started to round into form as Roberts has gained a better feel for whom he can trust in particular situations. On Sunday, Roberts called on Yency Almonte, Victor Gonzalez, Caleb Ferguson and Evan Phillips.
The win was the Dodgers’ eighth in nine games. The team’s lead in the National League West increased to 1½ games over the Arizona Diamondbacks and three over the Padres.
The manager said he sensed in spring training that this particular group of Dodgers would exhibit the same resilience as its predecessors.
“But,” Roberts added, “you don’t really know until you play and you get up against some adversity and see how guys respond.”
Plenty can, and probably will, change for the Dodgers between now and when the games really count in October.
But they have already demonstrated an ability to scratch and claw and win ugly. The Padres haven’t.
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