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Manny Machado homered early and added an RBI double off Clayton Kershaw, and Jurickson Profar singled home the go-ahead run as the San Diego Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-3 on Wednesday to even their NL Division Series at one game apiece.
The wild-card Padres beat the rival Dodgers for the first time in the postseason. San Diego was swept 3-0 by the Dodgers in a 2020 Division Series and lost Game 1 of this playoff Tuesday.
“It’s probably as back and forth a game as you are going to see,” Padres manager Bob Melvin said. “A lot of drama to it. Fun win.”
Dropped from first to seventh in the batting order for matchup purposes, Profar grounded a single to right field in the sixth inning off reliever Brusdar Graterol, who took the loss. Jake Cronenworth scored for a 4-3 lead.
Cronenworth homered off Blake Treinen in the eighth to give San Diego some insurance, and Josh Hader earned his first four-out save since August 2020 with Milwaukee.
“This team all year, we’ve been grinding,” Machado said.
Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy and Trea Turner went deep for the NL West champion Dodgers.
After an off day Thursday, the best-of-five series resumes with Game 3 on Friday in San Diego.
The teams traded one-run leads on a night when two of baseball’s elite pitchers — Kershaw and Yu Darvish of the Padres — got knocked around. In the middle innings, it became a battle of the bullpens for the second straight game.
Hader, who got the final out of the eighth, which also saw a goose makes an appearance, gave up a two-out double to Freeman off the right-center wall in the ninth.
