2022 MLB Playoffs: How the Padres beat the Dodgers and moved on to NLCS

By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

SAN DIEGO — And as it ended, the skies opened, and rain poured down on this town that sees an average of 10 inches each year.

The seventh inning of this National League Division Series’ fourth game featured two strange rallies, a drone delay and biblical levels of upheaval to this year’s playoff picture. The San Diego Padres began it needing a significant comeback to avoid a bus ride through the night to Los Angeles for a sudden-death Game 5. They ended it headed for the NLCS, their city raucously celebrating around them. 

San Diego’s 5-3 win Saturday at Petco Park meant the 111-win Dodgers won only one postseason game.

"I didn’t think it was supposed to rain in paradise," said Josh Hader, the man who finished it.

On Saturday, San Diego was baseball paradise. Expectations have been rising here for years, as general manager A.J. Preller consummated blockbuster after blockbuster in search of an answer to surmount the Dodgers. But, oh, have there been disappointments. The Dodgers swept them out of the playoffs in 2020. They suffered a losing season in 2021. This August, they lost superstar shortstop Fernando Tatís Jr. to a PED suspension weeks after Preller went all-in to acquire Hader and Juan Soto.

During the bottom half of Saturday’s seventh inning, no one was thinking about any of those. All this after the Dodgers actually started their own rally to begin the inning. Up 2-0 as it began, they managed to add a run without a big hit. They produced a walk, a bunt hit, a hit-by-pitch and a sacrifice fly. That netted one run and put runners on second and third with only one out. From there, though, Max Muncy and Justin Turner could get no more runs home.

Down three runs, the Padres started their seventh with a walk and a single against Dodgers reliever Tommy Kahnle. Austin Nola followed by bouncing a ball toward first base, where Freddie Freeman nearly gloved it but could not. That scored a run and spelled Kahnle's demise. Dave Roberts summoned Yency Almonte, who had been peerless earlier in this series.

Then Ha-Seong Kim slapped Almonte's fourth pitch down the third-base line, just out of Muncy's reach. 

"Muncy could have fielded it, could have been a double-play," Roberts said. "It wasn't to be, and that's baseball."

That baseball scored one more run and put two runners into scoring position, with no out, for Soto. He swiftly shot a single into right, tying the game. 

Up next, needing to put the ball into play to vault his team ahead, Manny Machado instead struck out. Brandon Drury then popped out, and Jake Cronenworth approached.

The man who’d face him, Alex Vesia, had not had much time to warm up. He stood up in the Dodgers' bullpen only when Drury began to bat, and Drury popped up the first pitch he saw. So Roberts had Almonte throw one pitch to Cronenworth, then signaled to catcher Will Smith to go speak to Almonte to supply a few additional seconds. Only after that did Roberts emerge, slowly, to pull Almonte in favor of Vesia.

Vesia’s first two pitches went for strikes, but not his next two, and Soto stole second without a throw. Cronenworth promptly punched the next into center field for a clean single that scored two.

In the alcohol-soaked aftermath, few of the involved parties had sufficient words to describe how it felt to experience. As he held three Budweisers and a cigar in his hands, with a fourth beer in his back pocket, Cronenworth contemplated that question.

"Just elation," he settled on.

"We were all hype as f---," said Joe Musgrove, who started the game for San Diego. "Everybody was beyond themselves."

"That was one of the most special innings and games that we’ll ever see," said Nola, who scored the tying run. "The crowd was amazing. The dugout was amazing. It was nothing I could ever explain. I’ll remember it for the rest of my life."

The Padres were soon headed to the NLCS. But first they needed six more outs. Musgrove said he and several teammates cautioned each other to calm down before they took the field for the eighth inning. Pitching in the rain, after staffers poured dirt to firm up the mound, Hader and setup man Robert Suárez quickly rendered the remaining innings moot.

To advance was sweet. To do so instead of the Dodgers was sweeter. To do so at home, in front of a clamoring city starved of sporting success, was divine. Now the Padres will wield home-field advantage against Philadelphia in a series that starts here Tuesday.

They do not have the superstar they planned to build around. But they have a whole lot else: Machado, Soto, Hader, Musgrove, Cronenworth and undeniable camaraderie.

"It’s been a challenging season, but it’s all worth it when you have an evening like tonight," Preller told FOX Sports. "This is what we planned for. This is what we made the trades for. It’s all worth it tonight, for sure."

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Dodgers for The Athletic, the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times, and his alma mater, USC, for ESPN Los Angeles. He is the author of "How to Beat a Broken Game." Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.