Dodgers score off Padres closer Mason Miller in 9th inning to win

SAN DIEGO — Andy Pages didn’t fear the Reaper.

It took a successful ABS challenge, a wild pickoff throw, an epic at-bat by Pages and a play at the plate so close it had to be confirmed by replay. But the Dodgers scored a run off Mason Miller (introduced with pomp and video flames on the scoreboard as ‘The Reaper’) in the ninth inning and beat him and the San Diego Padres, 5-4, on Tuesday night.

With the win, the Dodgers have split the first two games of the series at Petco Park and moved back into a half-game lead over the Padres in the National League West.

The loss was Miller’s first of the season and the unearned run that decided the game was only the third run he has surrendered in 22⅔ innings this season.

“It was one of the greatest at-bats I’ve ever seen in person, and I’ve been playing a long time. That at-bat was incredible,” gushed Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who hit two home runs, the second tying the score at 4-4 in the sixth inning. “To hit 95 (mph) is hard, to hit 100 is even harder, to hit 102 is even probably the hardest thing to do, and to foul off 102s back to back, sliders at 87, 88 – one of the best at-bats I’ve ever seen.”

Miller entered in the ninth inning with the score tied. After Will Smith flew out, Max Muncy worked a full count and took a slider near the outside corner that was called strike three by home plate umpire Rob Drake. Muncy immediately tapped his helmet to challenge the call and was rewarded with a walk when ABS showed it off the plate.

Alex Call pinch-ran for Muncy and broke for second as Miller prepared to deliver an 0-and-1 pitch to Pages. But Miller stepped off and had Call hung up between first and second base. His pickoff throw was wild and Call advanced all the way to third base on the error.

“‘Oh shoot,’” Call said of his thought process as the sequence played out. “Then after, ‘Oh yeah. Here we go. Going to third.’ But that’s the game situation. We know how valuable those 90 feet are. In a situation like that, we’re willing to take a little risk. You have to trust what your scouting was and your preparation was and your eyes. I feel good about all those things. Luckily it worked out.”

Pages fell behind 0-and-2 before it did. He fought for eight pitches, fouling off pitches that came in at 101, 102 and 101 mph.

“I felt good hitting against him, and more so when the runner advanced to third,” Pages said in Spanish. “In my mind, I never thought he was gonna strike me out or dominate me. I was 100% certain I was gonna move the ball forward.”

Pages grounded out against Miller to end Monday’s 1-0 game with runners at first and second. He fouled off six pitches during Tuesday’s at-bat and even at 0-and-2 remained confident he could get the runner in from third.

“I’m pretty sure the one that changed was his because on those two pitches I was on time and I’m sure he noticed that,” Pages said.

“There were some pitches he threw 102 and I fouled them off, and I saw them well. In that moment that’s when I had the confidence to tell myself that he didn’t have a chance.”

Pages finally drove the ninth pitch of the at-bat to right field where Fernando Tatis Jr. settled under it in medium depth right field. Tatis caught it and fired home as Call tagged from third. He just beat the throw as Padres catcher Freddy Fermin swiped a tag on him just a split-second too late. The Padres challenged the call but replay confirmed it.

“It was awesome,” Call said of Pages’ at-bat. “He was battling. Obviously we all know how good Miller has been. Just having him grind it out, battle, spoil pitches – it was tremendous. Incredible job by Andy and all the guys tonight.”

It felt like a playoff game – as so many of the Dodgers-Padres matchups have in recent years.

Freeman’s two-run home run in the first inning gave the Dodgers an early lead but Miguel Andujar matched it in the bottom of the inning and Manny Machado made it 4-2 in the third inning with another two-run home run off Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan.

“Not great. Not a ton of positives to take from it,” Sheehan said of his outing. “Personally just left my fastball down the middle way too much, not really competitive with two strikes either. Just not making very good pitches.”

The Dodgers got a break in the fourth inning. Jackson Merrill singled and was on first base with two outs when Ty France drove a ball to the warning track in right-center field. The ball hit the track and bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double, forcing Merrill to stop at third base instead of scoring. Sheehan got Freddy Fermin to ground out and end the inning.

That kept the score close enough for the Dodgers to match the Padres in the sixth inning.

Freeman entered the game hitless in his past 16 at-bats and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts commented before the game that Freeman had been “under the weather” recently.

He must have been feeling better after his two-run home run in the first inning ended his hitless streak and his second home run tied the score in the sixth.

Pitching on four days of rest – regular rest for everyone else in MLB, but the Dodgers prefer to give their starters at least five – Sheehan went just four innings and 67 pitches. The five Dodgers’ relievers who followed outpitched the Padres’ bullpen that is getting so much attention. They allowed just one hit over those five innings with Will Klein closing it out for the first save of his major-league career.

“He’s great, and no one’s gotten him,” Roberts said of beating Miller. “We feel good about our guys. And still, the game plan is to keep him out of the game. That’s still the plan. But I still felt that in two nights against him, we put together some good at-bats to stress him a little bit.”