I’ve seen the Padres choke in October.
It happened at St. Louis in 1996.
Confirming the moment was too big for a few Padres hitters, Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson said the hyper offense helped out Cardinals starter Todd Stottlemyre, leading to the 3-1 defeat and a playoff-series sweep.
Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn was so mad about the offense’s flop that when the 1998 team headed to the postseason – in which it would reach the World Series — he told teammates if they reprised their ‘96 showing he’d rip them in the newspaper.
So, here’s the thing about the Padres losing 2-0 Friday night to the Dodgers in the winner-take-all finale of the Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
This wasn’t a choke job by their hitters. They didn’t come out flat. Or tight. Or hyper.
Nor was it a case of failing to adjust or to read the game.
Dodgers pitchers — all five — pitched very well. L.A.’s defense was perfect.
Sometimes you slay the dragon. Sometimes the dragon turns your bats into charred wood.
How many significant, clear mistakes did Padres hitters make?
I saw only one: Luis Arraez hacked at a neck-high, full-count pitch in the sixth inning, resulting in a one-out groundout that deprived Fernando Tatis Jr. a chance to bat with Arraez on first base.
That’s it. One errant reaction to a winnable test.
Should the Padres have bunted once or twice at hobbled first baseman Freddie Freeman?
Perhaps. Jurickson Profar gave it a try once, but the ball went foul.
Did the Padres swing too much for the home run? Probably not. In approach, they resembled the Padres offense that produced the big leagues’ best batting average and line-drive rate.
L.A. pitching was just that good.
Starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto found the form that led the Dodgers to spend about $400 million to get him. The result was five scoreless innings, shortening the game for a Dodgers bullpen from which eight relievers had combined for a shutout two nights earlier in Game 4.
Breaking his tendency against the Padres, Yamamoto threw more fastballs early in the game, largely because his heaters had more life and zip.
“From that first pitch, 97 (mph), he was locked in,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
The concern for the Padres was that Yamamoto would reprise his signature game this year in which he dominated the Yankees by finding a hotter fastball and breaking out more sliders to complement his splitters and curves.
The concern was realized. This was peak Yamamoto.
Tatis’ 0-for-4 night owed to the Dodgers pitching him well. L.A. matched him against seven different pitchers over a span of nine plate appearances in Games 4 and 5.
Smartly, the Dodgers gave rookie Jackson Merrill the star treatment.
Take Merrill’s at-bat against fellow lefty Alex Vesia after the Alpine native was summoned with L.A. ahead 1-0, the bases empty and two outs in the seventh inning.
A fastball pitcher who throws only one slider out of three pitches, Vesia fired four sliders out of his first five pitches to Merrill, getting ahead 1-2.
Then Vesia blew a perfect inside fastball by Merrill.
Did that max-effort, October duel overtax Vesia?
As he warmed up for the eighth inning, he summoned a trainer and exited.
In came Michael Kopech. He fired a 102-mph fastball past Jake Cronenworth for strike three. Kopech was sharper than normal, missing the strike zone just once in nine pitches of a scoreless inning.
The Padres, down 2-0, had one more chance to keep their season alive. But Blake Treinen displayed the high-speed Whiffle Balls that wrapped up L.A.’s Game 1 victory.
The Padres went down 1–2-3, Tatis grounding out to end it.
Did the Padres suffer inordinate bad luck on hard-hit balls?
No. Xander Bogaerts tagged a high-speed pitch for lineout to second base, and Manny Machado sent Mookie Betts to the right-field wall, but their only two hits, singles by Arraez and Kyle Higashioka, were crisp shots that brought up Tatis with one out in the third inning.
Tatis worked the count to 3-1.Yamamoto didn’t crack.
He threw a slider, a pitch that ed for only 3.3 percent of his pitches this season.
It was sharp one, and Tatis grounded it into a 5-4-3 double play.
The blame game didn’t apply to Game 5 of the NLDS. The Dodgers earned the win, shutting down a good Padres offense.
It’s on to the offseason.
