LOS ANGELES — From late March in South Korea to the early days of October in San Diego, Mike Shildt assembled a compelling candidacy for National League Manager of the Year. The Padres under his first-year leadership withstood a middling first half, weathered significant injuries and a drastic payroll reduction, and went on a tear to remember after the All-Star break.
Saturday at Dodger Stadium, under the magnifying glass of a division series against a blueblood opponent and the best player on the planet, Shildt made a move that — fair or not — turned into a less positive memory.
The chain of events that helped swing a 7-5 come-from-ahead loss to the Dodgers began in the bottom of the fourth after starter Dylan Cease allowed consecutive one-out singles to the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters. That brought Shohei Ohtani to the plate, two innings after the likely National League MVP clubbed a three-run homer that set off a minor earthquake in Chavez Ravine.
Shildt opted to lift Cease for Adrian Morejon, setting up a left-on-left matchup. The switch almost produced the desired result; on a full count, Morejon threw a 98.4 mph fastball that jammed Ohtani and broke his bat. Almost.
“Morejon absolutely made a beautiful pitch and blew him up,” Shildt said. “And he got one into center field.”
Mookie Betts scores on a single by Dodgers left fielder Teoscar Hernández off reliever Jeremiah Estrada. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Imagn Images)
In a figurative sense, after Ohtani’s bases-loading bloop, the manager’s subsequent maneuver did not exactly blow up. But it did not work precisely as hoped, either.
Morejon pulled a splitter well inside on an 0-2 count against perennial MVP candidate Mookie Betts. Then he pulled another. This time, the ball got away from catcher Kyle Higashioka — a run scored from third, cutting the Padres’ lead to one. With first base open and the count 2-2, Shildt ordered an intentional walk of Betts. That brought an ailing, lefty-swinging Freddie Freeman to the plate for a potential double play.
“Mookie against lefties is not going to hit ground balls,” Shildt said afterward. “He’s not going to strike out pretty much. And he’s going to walk. So, now you can sit there and say, ‘Let’s tap-dance around him.’ No, let’s go to Freddie with Morejon, who throws 50 percent ground-ball rate against lefties.”
The numbers at least partially supported Shildt’s explanation. Facing a 2-2 count in the regular season, Betts hit a ground ball 33.7 percent of the time. He walked (22 times) nearly as often as he struck out (24 times).
Against left-handers in the regular season, Freeman hit a ground ball 42.3 percent of the time. Saturday, Shildt also had this to consider: The Dodgers first baseman was playing with a recently sprained ankle.
In the bottom of the fourth, Shildt stuck with an interesting choice despite the fact Freeman already had singled twice and surprised the Padres by stealing a base. And the gambit nearly paid off.
Freeman hit a first-pitch ground ball in the general direction of Donovan Solano. The first baseman gloved it and, with no teammate particularly close to the bag for a double-play attempt, made an impressive, cross-body throw to home plate to just beat the runner from third. Shildt went to the mound and summoned Jeremiah Estrada from the bullpen, setting up a right-on-right matchup against Dodgers cleanup hitter Teoscar Hernández.
Two pitches later, Hernández laced a single to center field, the ball deflected off the glove of Jackson Merrill, and two Dodgers crossed the plate — including Betts with the go-ahead score. Los Angeles never trailed again.
“The whole inning was not right where we wanted it, but played the way we basically wanted it in that sense,” Shildt said. “And Ohtani flared one in. The ground ball wasn’t at anybody from Freddie. Solano makes a great play, gets the force at home.
“We’ve got Estrada, who we like a lot. And we like a righty on Hernández. And, to his credit, he put a swing and brought in two runs.”
Saturday was not the first time Shildt ordered an intentional walk with two strikes. On Sept. 17, with a runner on third in a tie game, reliever Jason Adam had a full count against Houston’s Kyle Tucker. Shildt decided to put Tucker on first base, later pointing to Tucker’s propensity for putting the ball in play. The Astros ended up scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch by Adam. The Padres re-tied the game but eventually lost in extras.
Less than three weeks later, in the aftermath of a series-opening defeat, there was more to dissect than one fourth-inning sequence.
The Padres, for the third time this season, jumped Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto for multiple first-inning runs. Then, for the third time in as many postseason games, they struggled to generate anything against an opposing bullpen.
“After Yamamoto went out, I feel like they brought guys in that just executed pitches, and they were not afraid of attacking,” Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “Yeah, they silenced our bats for most of the game.”
Cease acknowledged after the game that his imprecision against the bottom of the Dodgers’ order “kind of killed me.” He said he was not surprised that Shildt did not allow him to face Ohtani a third time.
“I let the runners on before him, and these are must-win games,” Cease said. “I think if I was executing more consistently, maybe I probably get that chance, but it just wasn’t today.”
Until they prove otherwise, the Padres are one of many teams that has not found a consistent solution for Ohtani, who is followed in the Dodgers’ order by two other potential Hall of Famers.
“Listen, he’s a good player,” Shildt said. “Clearly, he’s done some pretty special things this year. I feel good about — it’s just about execution. You’ve got to be even finer against really good players. But we have really good players, too.”
Some of that talent was on display Saturday. Third baseman Manny Machado, with a three-run homer in the top of the first, broke a tie with Tony Gwynn atop the Padres’ all-time postseason RBIs leaderboard. Tatis continued to star in his first postseason in front of fans, scorching a 118.9 mph double for the hardest-hit ball of his career. Four batters later, veteran infielder Xander Bogaerts lined a two-run go-ahead double. Merrill, with a pair of hard-earned walks, continued to demonstrate a precocious blend of talent and skill.
Yet, as so often happens this time of year, an unforgiving spotlight found a manager and his bullpen moves. Shildt, beginning in the bottom of the fourth, expended four high-leverage relievers — first in an attempt to preserve a lead and then to chase a win.
Time will soon tell whether a fourth-inning intentional walk is remembered as a costly decision or as a footnote in a comeback story. To advance, the Padres must win three of four games or sweep the next three. Facing the same Dodgers franchise, they pulled off the latter feat two Octobers ago, creating the fondest of memories.
It’s also just a memory.
“I mean, it’s a different year,” Machado said. “We just got to go out there and try to win tomorrow. We’ve been having that mindset all year. You know, put this one behind us and come back tomorrow and compete.”
(Photo of Adrian Morejon and Mike Shildt: Orlando Ramirez / Getty Images)
