Padres’ offense struggles in NLDS

LOS ANGELES — During the regular season, the Padres put together one of the best offenses in franchise history. Through their first five postseason games, they scored 30 runs.

Then San Diego’s lineup went dormant at the worst possible time, and the season ended with back-to-back shutout losses. The Dodgers handed the Padres a 2-0 defeat on Friday night at Dodger Stadium in the decisive Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

“They did a tremendous job on the other side pitching,” third baseman Manny Machado said. “We have to give credit when it’s due. We just couldn’t string along some hits. We had some opportunities. We couldn’t get it through. We fell short.”

The Padres, who had only two hits (both singles) in the final game, ended their season with 24 consecutive scoreless innings. It was their longest drought of 2024, including the regular season.

That was also the longest postseason scoreless stretch in Major League Baseball in 33 years. The 1991 Braves were held without a run for 26 innings by the Pirates in the NLCS.

Atlanta still won the NL pennant that year and went to the World Series.

These Padres are going home for the winter.

“I’m going to say bad timing,” right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. said. “The boys were going out there and putting tough at-bats. Man, credit to everybody who deserves credit. Obviously, they pitched good. It’s as simple as that. We gave our best battle.”

Here’s a look at what went wrong:

• Tatis was having an out-of-this-world postseason while going 10-for-18 (.556) with four home runs and a 1.970 OPS through his first five postseason games of 2024. But after his second-inning homer in Game 3, he went 1-for-10 despite hitting some balls hard. It was Tatis who made the final out of the Padres’ season by grounding to third base.

• Machado hit a two-run homer in Game 1 of the NLDS but was 4-for-21 (.190) overall in the series.

• Luis Arraez won the NL batting title for the third season in a row and went 3-for-9 vs. the Braves in two NL Wild Card Series games. But Arraez finished 4-for-22 (.182) in the NLDS.

• In an 8-0 loss in Game 4, the Padres were 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

• In the final 24 innings, San Diego put the leadoff batter on base only four times.

“That’s kind of been our bread and butter, when our leadoff guy gets on,” said second baseman Jake Cronenworth, who was 3-for-22 (.136) in the postseason. “We competed. I thought we had some good at-bats. We just couldn’t get the big hit in a big spot.”

What changed? Much of it was how the Dodgers utilized their pitchers. Manager Dave Roberts used 17 pitchers to cover those final 24 scoreless innings. That included going with a bullpen game of eight relievers in Game 4.

“Their bullpen is definitely one of their strengths,” catcher Kyle Higashioka said. “We were having a good time against their starters in the three games prior to this. So I think their bullpen came up clutch for them. We couldn’t figure them out at the plate in the end. We couldn’t string enough hits together to put runs on the board.”

Said Tatis: “That bullpen game, it was just different than any other game we played this year. Seeing a different arm every inning was kind of like winter ball style. But it’s tough. They have good arms in that bullpen. Credit to them for making the type of pitches that they made.”

Roberts went back to using a starter for Game 5 in Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who gave up two third-inning singles and a second-inning walk in an otherwise clean night. Then the Los Angeles bullpen went back to work to finish the job.

“When you call a number, call a name, it’s up to those guys to go out there and perform. And I give all the credit to those guys,” Roberts said. “And you can have whatever plan or script people can talk about, but it comes down to the players. And those guys made plays, made pitches and made us all look good. From Yoshi today to the bullpen, if you’re talking about a series MVP, it’s our bullpen, clearly.”

It was a stunning ending for a Padres club that led MLB in batting average for the first time ever and was eighth in runs. The team also had the league’s best contact rate and lowest strikeout rate.

All for naught in the NLDS.

“At the end of the day, stuff didn’t go our way,” Tatis said.