Dodgers blank Padres, forcing winner-take-all Game 5 in National League Division Series

Things change in the playoffs at a speed that can cause whiplash and test the heart of a team and toy with the hearts of its fans.

Every at-bat sends a packed ballpark from elated to deflated. Every result swings the perceived advantage radically.

So it was Wednesday. In front of yet another record crowd at Petco Park, the Padres on Wednesday went from needing to win one of two games to needing to win or go home.

They will have to play the National League Division Series to its fullest extent after an 8-0 loss to the Dodgers, who used eight relievers to stymie them and even the series at two games apiece.

“I’m already excited for Friday,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “How fun is that going to be? Missed opportunity, chance to close it out. Didn’t. Move on. Play Game 5. Winner take it.”

Friday’s game, set to begin at 5:08 p.m. PT at Dodger Stadium, will decide which team hosts the Mets in the NL Championship Series.

“It’s a one-game season from here on out,” Jake Croneworth said. “I think this group has done an incredible job all year. If we had a tough loss, forgetting about, focusing on the next game and making the next one the most important.”

The experiment of Dylan Cease starting on short rest did not go well, though that did not necessarily have anything to do with his pitching four days after his previous start.

It is possible the Dodgers simply found the hard-throwing right-hander every bit as hittable as they had in Game 1 on Saturday.

“I liked how the ball was coming out of my hand,” Cease said. “… I felt good out there.”

Cease faced 10 batters, got half of them out and allowed two runs before giving way to Bryan Hoeing and having another run score.

Suddenly, it was a bullpen game for both teams.

Playing from behind, that did not go well for the Padres.

“Good relievers and executing their pitches,” Xander Bogaerts said. “Some really tough at-bats tonight. We had to grind for our pitches. They came in with that reliever mindset. … They executed perfectly, all of them.”

That the night would go as it did was not entirely surprising.

The Dodgers’ bullpen ranked among the best in the major leagues, and along with a strong Braves bullpen in the wild-card series has rendered Padres bats largely impotent.

The Padres scored plenty in their first five playoff games. They just had not done much of it against relief pitchers.

Of their 30 postseason runs, just seven were achieved against relief pitchers. Of their 42 hits, just 13 were against relievers. That was despite having 20 more at-bats in 25⅓ more innings against opposing relievers than against starters.

The Padres entered Wednesday batting .149 against relievers, which included their going 0-for-9 in their 10-2 victory in Game 3 on Tuesday.

“It’s a part of the game,” David Peralta said. “It’s postseason. They have a good bullpen.”

Two Dodgers relievers retired the first five Padres batters on Wednesday, and it was 3-0 by that point.

Cease, who on Saturday at Dodger Stadium allowed five runs in 3⅓ innings, was making his first start on three days’ rest.

Shildt was adamant before the game about Cease’s fitness for the task. He was just as decisive when opting to move on from Cease, who came out firing with a 99.6 mph fastball for a strike but almost right away demonstrated a lack of command, which is usually what determines whether he is virtually unhittable or can be waited out.

After retiring Shohei Ohtani on a groundout to second base, Ohtani’s 10th out in 11 at-bats after beginning the series 2-for-3 with a home run, Cease sent a 2-2 fastball down the middle that cleared the wall in left-center field and bounced in the Padres’ bullpen.

The Dodgers were into the Padres bullpen in a figurative sense a short while later. And only fleetingly the rest of the night did the crowd of 47,773 have reason to wave their gold towels and scream.

Cease began the second inning with an out. Then he walked No.7 hitter Gavin Lux and yielded a single to Kike Hernández. With runners at the corners, he struck out Chris Taylor, who had fouled off two bunt attempts.

Ohtani, up for the third time in the series with two runners on, got his third hit in that situation, sending a first-pitch single through the right side that scored Lux.

That was it for Cease, as Shildt came out of the dugout and brought in Bryan Hoeing.

“I understand right there,” said Cease, who had said he expected to have Wednesday be a “normal” start. “I let on some baseurnners, so (going deeper) wasn’t really an option today. … It was just dependent on results. Unfortunately, the results weren’t there today.”

Hoeing’s first pitch was sent on a soft line through the right side by Betts, bringing in Hernández.

Hoeing ended the inning on a comebacker by Teoscar Hernández.

A pair of two-out hits by the Padres broke the run of 14 consecutive outs they had made against Dodgers relief pitchers and made it so left-hander Anthony Banda was finished after one inning.

But the Dodgers scored twice in the top of the third — on a leadoff double by Max Muncy and homer by Will Smith — and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts went right to the back of his bullpen to try to make sure the Padres stayed down.

It worked.

Michael Kopech, who throws 100 mph and is generally protecting leads in the eighth or ninth inning, got through the third allowing just a two-out double by Fernando Tatis Jr.

Left-hander Alex Vesia began the fourth, retired Manny Machado, Jackson Merrill and Bogaerts in order, and came back out for the fifth.

The two left-handers that began the inning reached base to start the inning — Peralta with his second single and Cronenworth with a walk — before Kyle Higashioka struck out. With Evan Phillips warming, waiting to face Tatis, Luis Arraez flied out to right field.

Phillips came in and ended the inning by getting Tatis on a fly ball to center field and then got through Machado, Profar and Merrill on six pitches in the sixth.

For a while, the relievers that followed Hoeing were highly effective.

Adrián Morejón got the final two outs of the third, got through the fourth with help from Machado and third base umpire Mark Ripperger, and got an out into the fifth.

The fourth ended on a hit down the third base line that Machado deflected and Rippergere had go off his hand, which was outstretched signaling fair ball.  That stopped the ball, which Machado picked up and threw home to get Ohtani.

Jeremiah Estrada replaced Morejon, finished the fifth and left runners at first and second with two outs for Alek Jacob in the sixth. Jakob got Betts to pop up to first base to end the inning.

A hit batter, an error by Bogaerts and a sacrifice bunt gave the Dodgers a 6-0 lead before Jacob was replaced by Wandy Peralta, who immediately surrendered a two-run homer to Lux.

Cronenworth’s two-out triple off Daniel Hudson in the seventh inning, singles by Arraez and Profar against Blake Treinen in the eighth and Bogaerts’ single off Landon Knack in the ninth ran the Padres’ hit total to seven.

Machado was defiant about the struggles against relievers.

“It’s hit or miss,” he said. “We’ve walked off the best closers in the games. It’s irrelevant, honestly. It really is. We didn’t hit, we didn’t get runs across the board, and that’s what it really was. … You’ve got to hit the ball, you’ve got to score runs. That’s the name of the game. We just didn’t do that today. They’re a good team over there. And they’ve been doing it all year, and we just didn’t execute when we had a couple opportunities.”

The Padres’ bags were laid out in front of their locker after the game. They would board buses a short while later for the trip to Los angeles. They will work out at Dodger Stadium on Thursday afternoon.

“Put this aside and go out there and get ready for Game 5 and compete,” Machado said. “Like we’ve been doing all year.”