The San Diego Padres’ performance on Saturday could probably be put in a tutorial video.
Suggested title: How NOT to play a baseball game.
On a night the surging Padres were trying to bounce back from the Dodgers’ opening win in this weekend’s pivotal three-game series, one that tied the two Southern California rivals atop the National League West standings, the club instead put on an exhibition of poor, sloppy and outright comical execution.
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While the once-slumping Dodgers have raised their level of play the last two nights, the Padres have made mistakes even Little League coaches would be reprimanding.
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Except in their case, even the coaching appeared to be part of the problem.
In the Dodgers’ 6-0 win — a victory that restored their solo lead in the division, and clinched their head-to-head season series against the Padres in case of a tiebreaker at the end of the year — San Diego did all it could to give the game away from the start.
In the top of the first, three of the Padres’ first four batters recorded a hit against Blake Snell, the ex-Padre left-hander making his first start against the team since leaving in free agency at the end of 2023. But twice, Dodgers catcher Will Smith caught a runner trying to steal second, gunning down Fernando Tatis Jr. after his leadoff single before getting Manny Machado on the back end of an attempted double-steal to retire the side.
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“We had a plan,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “And they made some plays.”
Lo and behold, the plan backfired again in the second, with Smith throwing out yet another runner, Xander Bogaerts, with yet another strike to second.
“Through two innings,” Snell joked, “he had three outs and I had three outs.”
Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell delivers against the Padres at Dodger Stadium on Saturday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
It was the Dodgers’ first game with three caught stealings since 2021, and it made Smith the first Dodgers catcher with three individually since Russell Martin in 2010.
“Obviously we feel that Will is the best catcher in baseball in totality,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Tonight, he showed it with his arm.”
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And, just as importantly, Roberts quickly added: “Essentially, they played 24 outs.”
Somehow, the Padres’ pitching and defense found a way to be even worse.
Starting pitcher Dylan Cease began his outing with three-straight walks in the bottom of the first, spraying the ball around the plate while visibly frustrated.
After a one-out sacrifice fly from Teoscar Hernández, Cease reloaded the bases with another free pass to Andy Pages, and followed that with a hanging curveball to Michael Conforto in a 3-and-0 count that had run full. Conforto was ready for it, ripping a two-run single into right. Seven batters in, the Dodgers had a 3-0 lead.
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“Definitely you don’t want to help him out in that situation,” Conforto said. “But he fell behind 3-0, and came back into the zone, and showed that he was going to throw strikes. He wasn’t going to put me on. So, being ready to hit 3-1, and then being ready to hit 3-2, was obviously the plan.”
Dodgers second base Miguel Rojas tags out San Diego Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts on a stolen-base attempt in the second inning. Catcher Will Smith threw out three Padres baserunners Saturday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Walks continued to abound in the second, with Cease putting Shohei Ohtani and Smith aboard to create more traffic. This time, the right-hander had appeared to work his way out of it, after Freddie Freeman hit a deep fly ball that died at the warning track in right-center. But on this night, even routine outs were no sure thing.
Sensing Tatis converging from right field, center fielder Jackson Merrill briefly hesitated while pursuing the drive, before awkwardly reaching for it with an underhanded attempt. Predictably, he couldn’t hold on, the ball hitting the heel of his mitt before falling to the ground for a two-run error.
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The Dodgers, who went on to get six shutout innings from Snell and a second home run in as many nights from Hernández, would never be threatened again.
“It’s certainly good to be on the other side of things,” Roberts said, after his club had for so long had been the one shooting itself in the foot. “We’ve caught some breaks … but for us to take advantage of them is huge.”
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani scores on a sacrifice fly in the first inning Saturday against the Padres. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
To recap the first two innings one more time:
The Dodgers (70-53) had just one hit, and saw their starting pitcher retire only one of the first five batters he faced — but drew six walks, were gifted a dropped ball and somehow led 5-0.
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The Padres (69-54) had four hits — but apparently forgot how to throw up a stop sign, committed the costliest of imaginable errors defensively, and watched their starting pitcher throw 31 balls to only 27 strikes.
That, kids, is decidedly not how it’s done.
“It just got out of hand a little early,” Bogaerts said. “Obviously a little, couple of mistakes.”
Not that the Dodgers seemed all too much to mind.
Over the last couple months, as Roberts eluded to, they had been the team on the wrong end of sloppy fundamentals. What was once a nine-game division lead evaporated in the space of six weeks, thanks to un-clutch offense, unreliable relief pitching and one maddening close loss after another.
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But in Friday’s series opener, they had finally played clean baseball, and even more importantly, grinded out a one-run win.
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“If you win the close games, that’s how you build,” Freeman theorized last week. “Then you’ll score nine, 10 runs. Then you’ll start putting some things together. But just need to find a way to win those close ones.”
So far in this series, that prediction has come true.
Not that he, or anyone else with the Dodgers, could have expected the Padres to offer so much self-destructive help.
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“I’m just happy that we’re playing better baseball,” Roberts said. “We’re playing clean baseball. We’re minimizing the walks, taking walks. Not making outs on the bases, and converting outs when we need to. When you have the talent that we do, you just gotta kind of play good baseball. … So this is a good time to go for the jugular [with a potential series sweep Sunday].”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.