Friday’s game was five hours long, 12 innings and 17 pitchers.
Saturday’s game came out to an inch.
That was pretty much the distance between Petco Park’s lawn and the baseball bulging out of Mookie Betts’s glove, just safe enough to place another exclamation point in an exciting game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres.
It was the bottom of the ninth, there were two outs, the Dodgers were led by two, the Padres had two runners in scoring position and both teams navigated another April game with the nail-biting intensity of October. Betts, who played midfield for the injured Cody Bellinger, broke to the left, sprinted seven steps and launched himself towards Tommy Pham’s sinking line drive. If it falls, at least the game is a draw. Give Pham’s speed, maybe the Padres will win on a home run in the park.
Betts secured it on the heel of his glove and turned a game with a 10% catch chance in the Dodgers’ 2-0 win. He knelt on both knees, patted his chest three times, and roared at a crowd that had become mostly silent. Moments later, in an on-field interview with the Dodgers’ employment agency, Betts said he was “a little blacked out.”
0:35
Mookie Betts dives to end the game and secure the Dodgers’ victory over the Padres.
They have been series like that.
“It’s different,” said Padres starter Yu Darvish, who only gave up seven dominant innings once, through his interpreter. “I saw it yesterday too.”
Friday’s madness spilled over into Saturday’s classic pitching game between Darvish and Clayton Kershaw, which brought in just one run in the first eight innings – on a basesloaded walk by Kershaw, of all people – and ended with a brilliant defense, the antithesis of the carelessness of 24 hours earlier.
The Dodgers have won eight in a row, continue to lead the majors in the winning percentage, and have won 13 of their first 15 games for the second time in the last 100 years.
They’ve elevated themselves to match the intensity of a Padres team so noticeably eager to knock them off their pole atop the National League West, but they haven’t necessarily forced it. They’ve reassured their sick players, guarded against overuse of their relievers, and talked about this series with the faintness you’d expect from early-season baseball, even if the games didn’t feel like it.
“It’s April,” said Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner. “The thing about this club, and our team over the years, is we talk a lot about playing one game at a time and worrying about today and doing everything we can to win a game today and not worry. about what happened yesterday and not looking ahead to what’s coming tomorrow I think a lot of teams are talking about that but this team is one of the best groups I’ve ever had to actually run that and not to the moment grow big. “
Kershaw regularly played catch with Darvish during the last three months of the 2017 season, but he had never played with him until Saturday – you know, as a batter. He was retired on four pitches in his first at bat and then made it 2-2 in his second. It was the fifth inning, the bases were loaded with two outs, Darvish had removed three batters from an evolving perfect game – beginning one of the best sequences in Kershaw’s offensive career, a collection of four pitches that epitomized intensity and unpredictability . and sheer randomness of this burgeoning rivalry.
Slide across the plate, tipped incorrectly.
Cutter far low and away, tipped wrong.
Cutter up and down, conceived as a ball.
Cut away something, taken for a ball.
Kershaw took a walk – on a perfectly placed cutter that ran only around the edges of the attack zone – to bring in a point, only the second time in a 14-year Major League career. Until Turner released a solo-homer in the top of the ninth, it was the lone run in the game. In the end it was also the difference.
“Just trying to be annoying,” Kershaw said of his approach. ‘I wouldn’t get rid of him, he’s got too good stuff. It just tries to be as difficult as possible. ‘
The previous half inning, Kershaw shouted to Jurickson Profar – “That’s a bulls — swing!” he barked – because he swung so late that he caught his bat on Austin Barnes’s glove and got first base after the catcher’s interference. Kershaw later complained that Profar “swung straight down and back,” adding that it was “not a big league swing.”
Two innings later, Trent Grisham was on second base, but didn’t read the defense behind him accurately and broke through the infield late on Manny Machado’s sharp grounder, only 30 yards away. The next batter, Wil Myers, hit a 106 mph grounder that went off the mound and ended up in Chris Taylor’s glove for a double play that ended the inning.
Kershaw, who contributed six scoreless frames and allowed no run in 18 consecutive innings, couldn’t help but smile as he walked back to the dugout.
Myers looked dumbfounded.