The Los Angeles Dodgers again fell into a 3-0 deficit but failed to duplicate their comeback effort from Saturday night and suffered a 10-2 loss to the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the NLDS.
The NLDS now shifts to Petco Park tied at 1-1 heading into Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Jack Flaherty followed a similar path to Yoshinobu Yamamoto as he surrendered a homer in the first inning and allowed the Padres to go up three runs.
Fernando Tatis Jr. opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning, adding onto his career success at Dodger Stadium.
David Peralta, who spent last season with the Dodgers and didn’t sign with the Padres until the middle of May, connected on a two-run homer in the second inning.
Flaherty fought a high pitch count and didn’t retire the side in order until the fourth inning. Flaherty went 5.1 innings in what was the longest postseason start by a Dodgers pitcher since Tyler Anderson went five frames against the Padres in Game 4 of the 2022 NLDS.
Flaherty at one point retired eight batters in a row, which was part of a stretch of 10 of 11.
That was interrupted when Flaherty hit Tatis with a hit pitch to start the sixth inning. It led to Jurickson Profar and Will Smith, who share a history, to exchange some words behind the plate. Manny Machado shouted in Flaherty’s direction from the dugout steps.
After Profar reached on a bunt single, Flaherty struck out Machado swinging and yelled expletives at him, urging the Padres’ star to make his way back to the dugout. Flaherty and Machado continued to exchange words in the bottom half of the inning.
Anthony Banda gave up an RBI single before he could get through the sixth. The book closed on Flaherty at five runs allowed.
Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts later broke the game open with back-to-back home runs in the eighth inning. Merrill took Ryan Brasier deep and Bogaerts greeted Michael Grove with a solo shot.
Kyle Higashika and Tatís also added home runs in the ninth to continue adding on.
Padres’ defense stymies Dodgers
Mookie Betts appeared to have the Dodgers’ response to their early deficit but his fly ball to left field was caught by Profar on his leaping grab into the stands. Profar backpedaled from the short wall in left field and appeared to exchange words with Dodgers fans seated in that area.
Betts believed he hit a game-tying home run and was rounding the bases before Profar revealed to have made a tremendous catch to rob him.
The Dodgers did scratch across a run in the second inning, but that was somewhat of a letdown as they had loaded the bases with nobody out. Gavin Lux’s sacrifice fly was responsible for what ultimately held as the Dodgers’ only run off Darvish.
That’s not to say the veteran right-hander was overly dominant, but rather the Padres played stellar defense behind him.
Luis Arraez snagged a line drive and stepped on first base for an inning-ending double play to help Darvish escape the second inning. Tatis made a running catch in the right-center field gap to take a hit away from Freddie Freeman in the fourth inning.
In the sixth inning, Merrill made a leaping catch at the warning track in center field to take a likely extra-base hit away from Kiké Hernández.
Max Muncy hit a solo homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
Freddie Freeman injury
Freeman went 0-for-2 with one strikeout before being removed in the top of the sixth inning because of right ankle discomfort.
Freeman is attempting to play through a sprained right ankle and bone bruise, and remarked after Game 1 his status will be determined on a daily basis.
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