SAN DIEGO — In the moments after his team lost another raucous game, after the San Diego Padres beat his Los Angeles Dodgers in front of the largest crowd in Petco Park history, after this National League Division Series moved to the brink of being decided, Walker Buehler was not unlike the untold number of fans who had watched a second-inning sequence and came away feeling a bit confused.
This game — a 6-5 San Diego victory featuring two ridiculous innings and otherwise little offense — might have turned on a subtle choice by Manny Machado, the Padres’ lightning-rod third baseman. His decision to veer from the infield dirt between first and second and into the throwing lane of Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman might have made all the difference.
“I mean, both feet are on on the grass,” Buehler, the Dodgers’ starting pitcher, said. “I don’t think that’s part of the baseline. But I’m not an umpire.”
Dave Roberts isn’t, either. But the Dodgers manager knew the rule.
“You can create your own base path if you’re not avoiding a tag,” Roberts explained. “And it was a heady play.”
And it was a notable admission, considering the source. A little more than a day had passed since Roberts, in what might have been an attempt to galvanize his team, went public with his belief that Machado had aimed a baseball at him. So, on Tuesday night, there was irony in the air.
The Dodgers had unintentionally thrown at Machado. He had made it happen.
Machado knew right away when the ball left Jackson Merrill’s bat. It was the bottom of the second, and as Machado took off from first, the resulting grounder went to Freeman.
The first baseman corralled it and, from his knees, threw toward second base — only to watch it glance off the back of Machado’s helmet and roll into left field.
Manny Machado advances to third on a throwing error by Freddie Freeman pic.twitter.com/FEOpgsUIvm
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 9, 2024
“Yeah, I mean, just knowing the rules,” Machado said. “Just trying to make it a tough throw for him going to second base. This is the first time it’s ever happened to me.”
He smiled. It wasn’t the first time that he had prepared for it.
“We’ve been doing it for years,” Machado said. “I’ve been doing it since I was back in the day in Baltimore with Buck (Showalter). So, you just got to know the rules. And you got to know what you got to do out there.”
The reference was apt. Three years ago, when he upended then-St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Tommy Edman on a double-play-preventing collision, Machado attracted controversy. Showalter, meanwhile, told The Athletic, “It should be celebrated. It’s a great, thinking man’s baseball play.”
Tuesday, Edman and the Dodgers watched as the bottom of the second unraveled in front of them.
Thanks to his alertness, Machado, who had reached on a leadoff single, and Merrill were both safe. Then Xander Bogaerts scored Machado with a fielder’s choice, beating out a throw himself. David Peralta ripped a two-run, go-ahead double down the right-field line. Jake Cronenworth beat out an infield single. Kyle Higashioka lifted a sacrifice fly to center field. Two batters later, Fernando Tatis Jr. detonated his third home run of the series as Petco Park erupted.
Machado had instigated a rare six-run inning. Yet, afterward, there was little surprise — and not just because the Padres excel at making contact.
“We always practice those things,” left fielder Jurickson Profar said of Machado’s base-running gambit.
“That was a great base-running play by Manny,” Cronenworth said. “It’s a tough play for a first baseman.”
“I would have done the same thing as a base runner,” Freeman said. “I’m really far in the grass, and he got really far in the grass. I can certainly say I wouldn’t do anything different at first. I thought I made a perfect throw.”
After it was over, Machado refused to bite. He had been asked about his latest controversy, the one in which Roberts alleged disrespect.
“The what? About our W tonight?” Machado said, grinning. “I mean, it feels great to win. We got one more left, and looking forward to going out there and battling tomorrow. It’s a grind. Baseball’s a grind. We grinded 27 outs tonight, and it was a hell of a place to play in front of this crowd.”
It had been a hell of a game. In the top of the first, Dodgers outfielder Mookie Betts had been fooled into thinking Profar had again robbed him of a home run. In the top of the third, Teoscar Hernández had smashed a grand slam off Michael King, stunning the crowd into temporary silence.
Then King retired the final eight batters he faced. And then a procession of high-octane relievers took the mound, one after the other, just like the Padres had envisioned when they went for it at the trade deadline.
It started with Jeremiah Estrada, who struck out Hernández looking.
It ended with Robert Suarez, who recorded the final four outs, pumping nothing but gas.
Petco Park might never have been louder, which was saying something.
“They prepared us,” Estrada said. “San Diego for sure prepared us to feel what it is, because they have given us this type of vibe here throughout the year. … We’re all hungry, we want to get in the game, and whatever the game situation happens, we’re ready.”
The Padres had proven it Sunday at Dodger Stadium. Tempers flared — first between dugouts, then between the visiting team and the home crowd. Then Machado gathered his teammates and urged them to remain focused. Then they did, on their way to an eight-run rout.
Tuesday, the setting shifted to a far friendlier environment and, as it turned out, a more civil one. This time, no baseballs or other foreign objects were hurled onto the field.
That wasn’t the only difference. Thanks in part to Machado’s heady play, these Padres — expressive, energetic, unapologetic — now stand one win away from the National League Championship Series.
“I love playing, we love playing baseball,” Machado said. “We go out there, and we enjoy ourselves, and we leave it all on the field every single night for 27 outs, day in, day out. The crowd here has been unbelievable all year for us, and it’s been fun playing in front of them.”
— The Athletic’s Andy McCullough contributed to this report.
(Photo of Machado: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
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