LOS ANGELES -- All week long, the Dodgers talked about their attitude. Sure, mechanical adjustments and working through a five-day layoff were going to play a factor. But what the Dodgers said they needed to change was their intensity level.

In their last two postseason appearances -- both ending in the National League Division Series -- the Dodgers admitted they didn’t show the fight necessary to win. They were punched first each time by division foes. They never punched back.

Before Game 1 of the NLDS on Saturday night, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts echoed the same words. He wanted to see his team deliver a few punches. He did add, however, that it was time for the Dodgers to stop talking about it. They needed to show it on the field.

The Dodgers more than showed their capability of landing a few haymakers of their own, coming from behind a couple of times in the 7-5 win over the Padres in Game 1 of the best-of-five NLDS at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s really hard to play loose in the first game of a playoff series," Ohtani said via interpreter Will Ireton on FS1 after the game. "... I think we played a really good game against a really good opponent.”

In all best-of-five postseason series, the team that wins Game 1 has gone on to take the series 109 of 152 times (72%). In Division Series under the current 2-2-1 format, teams winning Game 1 at home have advanced 37 of 51 times (73%).

For about 10 minutes, the scene at Dodger Stadium was eerily similar to 2023’s Game 1 loss to the D-backs. A year ago, Clayton Kershaw allowed six runs in the first inning. The Dodgers never got off the mat after the early onslaught.

This time, it was Yoshinobu Yamamoto who didn’t have it on the mound. The Padres jumped on the Japanese right-hander for three runs in the first, highlighted by a Manny Machado two-run homer. For the second consecutive postseason, the raucous crowd at Dodger Stadium was quickly silenced.

But unlike last year, the Dodgers didn’t flinch -- and that’s the reason they believe this October will be different.

In the second, it was Shohei Ohtani’s turn to welcome himself to the postseason stage. The overwhelming NL Most Valuable Player Award favorite smashed a game-tying three-run homer off right-hander Dylan Cease. As soon as Ohtani made contact, he flipped his bat and yelled as he rounded the bases.

The emotions from Ohtani were the first visual representation of the fight and intensity the Dodgers promised to deliver. But they weren’t the last.

After the Padres jumped back out in front on a Xander Bogaerts two-run double off Yamamoto in the third, the Dodgers needed to answer once again. That’s when Teoscar Hernández, who has been the Dodgers’ unsung hero all season long, delivered his biggest hit to date.

Hernández smoked a two-out, two-run single to center field to give the Dodgers a 6-5 lead.

“It’s been great. It’s been awesome," Hernández said during an in-game interview on FS1. "This is what I dreamed about in my career -- this atmosphere, facing one of the best in the National League.”

L.A. tacked on another run in the fifth and turned it over to its bullpen, which delivered with six scoreless innings of work.