Just one week earlier, the Los Angeles Dodgers had swept the Padres at Dodger Stadium. Entering the series with an 8–3 record and a 1-game lead in the division against San Diego, they dropped their first two games and the series. The Dodgers struggled throughout the whole month with a 10-11 record and even stumbled against the Rockies entering this series.

But as like, every time the Dodgers-Padres rivalry is more than just a game. Last time it was filled with drama and intense moments like bench clearances, manager ejections, and hit-by-pitch issues.

And this time? It was more of a pitcher’s duel. In the first game, Dodgers pitcher Blake Snell was sharp, giving up just 2 runs and 2 walks in the 7 innings he pitched against his old team. But the Padres’ Yu Darvish was sharper as he allowed 1 run in his 6 innings. The only hit he allowed was a lead-off homer in the third inning, but he had the last laugh.

Just one day later, in a 5-1 beat down on Saturday, Padres lefty Nestor Cortes took a perfect game into the sixth inning. And after that, Dave Roberts told Will Smith and Miguel Rojas that the team wasn’t making good in-game adjustments. Roberts agreed, saying, “Yeah, I agree with what they’re saying. And I think… this time of the season, it’s not about the mechanics, your swing. It’s about how I can help the team win? Find a way to move the line forward, get hits, spoil pitches, compete.” 

via Imago

Then Robert pointed to rookie Alex Freeland as the only player showing the right approach. “You know, we got a kid who comes up and… he’s responsible for two of our runs in this series,” Roberts said. “And this is just fight and hunger from a young kid who’s trying to stick. You know, so, you know, you look at the talent in our room… we got to do more.”

And Roberts continued criticizing their approach more and more, “You can’t always go for that big swing, and you got to kind of shorten up. And yeah, I mean, that’s… we have it in there. We do it at times, but just collectively, I just don’t see us doing that, you know, collectively.”

Roberts’ words were a direct reflection of the box scores. And the numbers were backing it.

A Tale of Two Dodgers: The Hungry and the Humbled

The frustration hits home because the team’s biggest bats went completely silent while a rookie fought for every pitch. The 24-year-old Alex Freeland was the only source of runs that came from the Dodgers’ offense in this whole series. He hit his first career homer on a Yu Darvish pitch in the third inning on the first night. And in the second game, he stepped in to pinch hit at eight and smashed a Jeremiah Estrada pitch to the right and went 2-for-3 in his last two games.

On the other hand, the Dodgers’ four offensive powerhouses—Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith—went a combined 0-for-29 at the plate. They produced zero runs, zero RBIs, and just two singles in the series.

So in the end, it will not be a hyperbole to say, The Dodgers’ lineup was historically shut down by the Padres’ pitching. Yu Darvish and Nestor Cortes made it happen, having pitched six or more innings with one or no hits allowed against the Dodgers in back-to-back games first time after 1906.