Padres respond with record-setting 6 HRs in tying NLDS

LOS ANGELES -- With their season on the line, the entirety of the Padres roster found itself huddled in the visiting dugout at Dodger Stadium prior to the eighth inning Sunday night. Manny Machado had called an impromptu meeting.

The previous couple innings had been ... eventful.

Fernando Tatis Jr. was plunked by a Jack Flaherty fastball, sparking a shouting match between Machado and Flaherty in the bottom of the sixth. An inning later, play stopped for about 10 minutes, after fans in the left-field seats had thrown baseballs in the direction of Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar.

When play resumed, and the Padres returned to their dugout, Machado called the group together. The game was too important -- and the Padres had come too far to get here -- for any of that to get in the way of their objective.

“Just stay focused on what we need to do and accomplish,” Machado said afterward, summing up his message.

“Some dirty words here and there,” added Yu Darvish with a smirk, through interpreter Shingo Horie.

Message received. The Padres took the field for the eighth, and they went back to doing what they’d done all night -- all season, really. They came out swinging. San Diego poured it on for a statement 10-2 victory in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.

The Padres tied a single-game MLB postseason record by hitting six home runs, including two from Tatis. The 2023 Phillies and 2015 Cubs previously also belted six (both in an NLDS Game 3), but the Padres became the first team to do so in a road playoff game.

Jackson Merrill, Xander Bogaerts, David Peralta and Kyle Higashioka also went deep. Darvish, meanwhile, held the vaunted Dodgers offense to one run over seven innings, and the red-hot Shohei Ohtani finished 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.

In the end, the Padres got what they came for: a split in L.A.

Petco Park awaits on Tuesday and Wednesday for the next two installments of this rivalry that seems to grow fiercer with each edition. The Padres might hold an edge. Under the current 2-2-1 format, when a Division Series has been tied after two games, the team heading home for Games 3-4 has gone on to win the series 29 of 44 times (66%).

The Padres should know what a win like this one means. They won the 2022 NLDS in four games after losing Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. In that series, Darvish also pitched them to a Game 2 victory.

Only this time, it wasn’t a Rally Goose interrupting play by landing on the field. It was baseballs, thrown by the fans in the left-field pavilion.

“We always play for each other,” Profar said. “When stuff like that happens, we seem to get a fire.”

Profar’s first interaction with those fans was much more benign. Tatis’ first homer put the Padres ahead in the top of the first. Mookie Betts appeared to equalize with a solo blast of his own -- but Profar reached into the second row and brought it back.

He fooled the entire stadium, too, because he took several seconds to remove the ball from his glove. But he had it -- his first home run robbery at any level.

“That was one of my wishes: I wanted to rob a homer,” Profar said. “And I did it in a playoff game.”

The Padres held a two-run lead into the sixth when things got heated. Flaherty plunked Tatis in the back. By mistake, Flaherty said. Machado didn’t take it that way. Flaherty later struck Machado out and had words for him. The two continued to bark at each other when Machado took the field for the bottom of the inning.

In the seventh, play was halted when two baseballs and various other objects were thrown onto the field. Profar reacted viscerally, later saying, “I was upset -- you can hurt someone.”

As a team, the Padres gathered in left field while manager Mike Shildt convened with the umpires.

“What's actually crazy is that inning, they all threw stuff out on the field, we all kind of got together as a team on the field -- I felt like we got even a little bit closer,” Bogaerts said.

Machado held his summit when the Padres returned to the dugout, then lined the first hit of the eighth inning. Merrill and Bogaerts followed with home runs. Higashioka and Tatis did so in the ninth. The Padres were back even.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Machado said, “to be playing postseason baseball.”