The San Diego Padres lineup stalled out against the Dodgers bullpen en route to a shutout loss.

Leaeding 2-1 in the series, San Diego looked to close out the Division Series at home. Los Angeles, on the other hand, aimed to force a Game 5 at their home. The Dodgers sent reliever Ryan Brasier to the mound against Padres starter Dylan Cease, throwing on three days’ rest for the first time in his career.

Unfortunately for the Padres, Cease was not at his sharpest. While he opened the game with a strikeout of Shohei Ohtani, his outing went downhill on the very next batter. On a 3-2 count, Cease mislocated a fastball, which was blasted 403 feet out to center field by Mookie Betts, giving LA the lead. While Cease was able to escape the inning with no further damage, the wheels came off in the second inning. Staring down runners on the corners with two outs, Cease threw a backdoor sweeper to Ohtani, who pulled it to right field for a hit, ending the outing for Cease. In five innings across two starts this series, Cease has stumbled to a 14.40 ERA (8.41 FIP), and the decision to start on short rest will certainly be questioned.

The Padres bullpen would be called upon for a longer night than expected, and Bryan Hoeing allowed a run to score in the second before serving up a towering drive off the bat of Dodgers catcher Will Smith, and the Dodgers’ lead was extended to 5-0.

It was simply not the Padres’ night, as the team posted an abhorrent 0-for-9 figure with runners in scoring position. Quite frankly, the Padres can’t say they didn’t have opportunities, as the team stranded nine baserunners and squandered several chances with multiple runners on at a time.

David Peralta finished the game with two hits, and the top three in the lineup (Arraez, Tatis, and Profar) each had one hit. However, it is hard to win baseball games when the heart of the lineup goes flat, and the Padres’ trio of Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill, and Xander Bogaerts went a combined 1-for-11, with the lone hit coming in the ninth inning. The ninth. Inning.

The Padres have struggled mightily against opponents’ bullpens this postseason, with the Game 2 outpour appearing to be an aberration at this point in time. The team was only able to score one run in 12.1 innings against the Braves bullpen in the Wild Card round, and thus far, against the Dodgers, the team has scored six runs across 22.2 innings against the Dodger bullpen. While this number sounds good for San Diego, that’s a 2.38 ERA for the Dodger bullpen. By comparison, their starters have a 10.30 ERA. The dropoff in production for Padres batters is unsustainable and will need to be turned around if they want any chance to win. And while it might sound hypothetical, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts referred to the possibility of his team having a bullpen game in Game 5 as “a good thought.”

While the Padres bullpen managed to hold their ground, it inevitably caved in, as Wandy Peralta and Alek Jacob surrendered three runs in the seventh (albeit only one earned). The Padres bullpen has been a strength so far this postseason, and the Padres managed to save the trio of Jason Adam, Tanner Scott, and Robert Suarez now for Game 5.

With Game 5 on the horizon, San Diego will send right-hander Yu Darvish to the hill with the season on the line. Los Angeles has yet to announce a starter, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Jack Flaherty, and another bullpen game under consideration to take the ball.

Two teams that fought like the knights of old all season long will face off one final time in 2024 on Friday, October 11, at 5:08 pm Pacific.

Diego Garcia

A born and raised San Diegan, Diego Garcia is a lifetime Padres fan and self-proclaimed baseball nerd. Diego wrote about baseball on his own site between 2021-22 before joining the East Village Times team in 2024. He also posts baseball content on his YouTube channel “Stat Nerd Baseball”, creating content around trades, hypotheticals, player analyses, the San Diego Padres, and MLB as a whole.

A 2024 graduate of San Diego State, Diego aims to grow as a writer and content creator in the baseball community.