Padres Strike First, But Ohtani Makes Bigger Splash in Playoff Debut, Guiding L.A. to 7-5 Win

The Padres took a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium Saturday, thanks in part to a shot to left center by Manny Machado.

But, as expected, Shohei Ohtani, making his highly anticipated playoff debut for the Dodgers, made his presence known, hitting a game-tying, three-run homer with two outs in the second inning.

Though the Padres briefly regained the lead, the Dodgers went on to a 7-5 victory over the team they battled down the stretch before winning their 11th NL West title in 12 years.

After flying out in the first, the Japanese superstar sent a 2-1 pitch from Dylan Cease into right field, a 372-foot shot that drew the sellout crowd of 53,028 to its feet.

Ohtani finished 2 for 5, with three RBIs, two runs scored and two strikeouts as Dodger Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, now 88, looked on from behind home plate.

Machado hit his two-run blast off Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani’s countryman who also made his postseason MLB debut, and looked shaky, giving up a single to Luis Arraez and a walk to Fernando Tatis Jr. After a passed ball and a wild pitch, Arraez scored on a grounder from Jurickson Profar to bring up Machado.

The slugger added another milestone to his Padre tenure with his homer, passing Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn for the most postseason RBIs for the team.

And San Diego bounced back despite the electric response to Ohtani’s homer, going ahead 5-3 in the third on Xander Bogaerts’ two-out, two-run double, scoring Tatis, who had doubled, and Jackson Merrill, who had walked.

The Dodgers rallied with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Ohtani had a broken-bat single and later scored, along with Mookie Betts, on Teoscar Hernández’s single – Merrill tried to make a desperate shoestring grab and the ball skittered behind him – that gave the Dodgers their first lead, 6-5.

L.A. added another run in the fifth, due to a rare throwing error by Machado at third that put Will Smith on. After a single by Gavin Lux, Jeremiah Estrada induced Tommy Edman to hit into a 6-4-3 double play, but Smith scored to give the Dodgers a 7-5 lead.

The Padres had chances in both the eighth and ninth and Machado was right in the middle of them.

San Diego had the potential tying runs in scoring position in the eighth. Michael Kopech issued a leadoff walk to Profar before Machado took a called third strike. Merrill, a contender for NL Rookie of the Year, drew a 10-pitch walk.

Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas made an over-the-shoulder catch on Bogaerts’ pop fly in shallow left-center before Treinen walked Jake Cronenworth to load the bases. But with fans madly waving blue rally towels, Treinen struck out Donovan Solano swinging to end the threat.

In the ninth, Machado came up after a two-out single by Tatis and a walk by Profar. But the slugger, badly fooled by Treinen, swung on a pitch that was way outside and struck out.

“They came in,” Machado said of L.A.’s five relievers, “they made their pitches and I think we had some good at-bats,” but, he added, it came to naught.

Tatis gave credit to the bottom of the Dodgers’ order – Lux, Edman and Rojas, who had five hits and scored two runs – not just Ohtani. “They were better today,” he said. “We couldn’t close the door.”

The Friars also used six pitchers, including Cease who went just 3.1 innings. Adrian Morejon, who relieved Cease, took the loss. They now trail L.A. 1-0 in the best-of-five series.

But take heart. The Padres opened their series against the Dodgers in 2022 with a loss yet won the next three straight to upset heavily favored L.A.

The rivals are meeting in the playoffs for the third time in five years. The Dodgers beat the Padres in a 2020 NLDS on their way to winning the World Series in the pandemic-shortened season.

Meanwhile, with Joe Musgrove out for the year, the Padres added two pitchers to their roster, Martín Pérez and Alek Jacob. Shortstop Nick Ahmed was left off for the NLDS.

Yu Darvish (7-3) takes on Jack Flaherty (13-7) in Game 2 at 5:03 p.m. Sunday, airing on FS1.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.