LOS ANGELES — The evening wanted a hero.
The Dodgers acquired two.
And in a season during which they might so typically depend on so many heroes, the Padres didn’t get one on the evening it mattered most.
“I’m unhappy for this crew,” Jurickson Profar stated. “We had every thing to go all the way in which. However, you realize, baseball. They performed higher than we did the previous two video games. We’re going dwelling.”
The hero may have been Yu Darvish, save for one fastball and one slider that each acquired hit a great distance and the truth that none of his teammates stepped into the breach.
As a substitute, on the finish of a season that may, as soon as the frustration ebbs, be remembered as being stuffed with magnificent performances, the Padres shrank.
The Dodgers moved onto the Nationwide League Championship Sequence with a 2-0 victory on Friday powered solely by Kike Hernández’s dwelling run within the second inning and Teoscar Hernández’s dwelling run within the seventh inning.
The Padres, who led the NL Division Sequence 2-1, didn’t rating within the closing two video games and completed their 2024 by going with out a run in a season-high 24 consecutive innings. It was the longest scoreless stretch within the postseason because the Braves went 26 innings within the 1991 NLCS.
“I believe ‘gorgeous’ is acceptable, yeah,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt stated stated of that end. “… Had them down. They had been capable of come again. So congratulations to them.”
Towards a beginning pitcher they’d their method with of their three earlier conferences, together with six days earlier, they managed two hits and a stroll.
Then the Dodgers bullpen continued its domination this sequence.
“Give credit score to everyone who deserves credit score,” Fernando Tatis Jr. stated. “They pitched good. Easy as that. We gave our greatest battle.”
After Yoshinobu Yamamoto labored 5 innings initially, Evan Phillips retired Kyle Higashioka, Luis Arraez and Tatis on 15 pitches within the sixth and struck out Profar and Manny Machado to begin the seventh.
Alex Vesia got here in and struck out Jackson Merrill to finish the inning.
Michael Kopech took 9 pitches to run by way of Bogaerts, David Peralta and Jake Cronenworth within the eighth.
Blake Treinen set down pinch-hitter Donovan Solano, Arraez and Tatis on 9 pitches within the ninth.
And that was it.
“It’s very exhausting,” Profar stated. “We did loads of uncommon issues. I don’t wish to give credit score to their pitching. We simply didn’t come by way of.”
A season during which the Padres gained 93 video games led to a wild-card sequence sweep of the Braves in two video games after which this NLDS, their second up to now three years and second in opposition to the Dodgers.
It was simply 72 hours earlier that the Padres had management of the sequence.
“It’s the powerful factor about sports activities,” Xander Bogaerts stated. “One has to win, one has to lose. One fanbase is completely satisfied, the opposite is unhappy.”
A 7-5 loss in Sport 1 was adopted by a 10-2 rout of the Dodgers in Sport 2 and a 6-5 victory of their return dwelling for Sport 3. They needed to win simply one of many subsequent two to advance to their second NL Championship Sequence in three years.
They didn’t. Probably not even shut.
After the Dodgers bullpen blanked them in an 8-0 loss Wednesday at Petco Park, the Padres bused to Los Angeles to attempt to hold this season going.
They’d a season’s price of proof — of comeback victories and shortly bouncing again from losses — to spice up their confidence.
However for simply the second time in a span of 69 video games, they misplaced a second straight recreation.
No champagne. Clean stares and quiet. A drive again down Interstate 5 with out one other recreation to play.
Darvish did all he may to make the season go on. The suitable-hander was arguably simply nearly as good in Sport 5 as he had been on Sunday in Sport 2, when he allowed a run on three hits over seven innings.
His closing line wouldn’t look nearly as good, with yet one more run and allowed the identical variety of hits whereas getting one much less out.
A 94 mph fastball down and in to Kike Hernández that the right-hander turned on and despatched midway up the bleachers past left discipline to place the Dodgers up 1-0.
Their subsequent hit could be Tesocar Hernández’s 420-foot blast on a 2-1 pitch that broke down and in and was additionally pulled into the left discipline bleachers.
The 26 straight batters Darvish, Yamamoto, Phillips and Vesia mixed to retire was a postseason report.
The Padres’ streak would go on, as none of their closing 19 batters reached base.
This postseason ending earlier than they wished might be largely remembered for his or her struggles in opposition to reduction pitchers.
Within the 5 NLDS video games, the Padres batted .202 and scored six runs in opposition to the Dodgers bullpen. All of these runs got here in Sport 2 — three in opposition to a rookie making his fourth big-league look and one off a pitcher who was faraway from the roster the following day with a shoulder harm.
However they failed to attain Friday evening, as nicely, in opposition to Yamamoto, who had yielded 14 runs in 9 innings in three video games in opposition to them this 12 months however threw extra fastballs and exhibited extra command than in his earlier begins in opposition to them.
Their solely menace Friday got here within the third inning.
One-out singles by Higashioka and Arraez offered an opportunity for Tatis, who had finished a lot harm for the Padres this postseason and who has had so many massive moments at Dodger Stadium.
Tatis entered the sport with seven hits in 16 at-bats within the sequence. He had struck out within the first inning and acquired a positive 3-1 depend earlier than grounding into an inning-ending double play.
The time for reflection and searching forward will come. On this second, there was principally remorse.
“We didn’t come by way of in conditions,” Profar stated. “We didn’t hit.”
Initially Revealed: October 11, 2024 at 7:40 p.m.