MLB: Fans throw balls and trash onto the field as Padres beat Dodgers 10-2

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fans threw baseballs toward San Diego left fielder Jurickson Profar and then threw trash, causing a long delay before the Padres beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-2 on Sunday night to clinch their NL Division Series equalize game apiece.

Yu Darvish limited the Dodgers' powerful offense to one run and three hits over seven innings and Fernando Tatis Jr. went deep twice as the Padres tied the postseason record of six home runs.

David Peralta and Jackson Merrill Each hit two homers, and a hobbled Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Higashioka had solo shots. At 21, Merrill became the youngest Padres player with a postseason home run.

“Six of them are a special treat for us,” Merrill said.

The Delay in the middle of the seventh inning resulted in a 12-minute break between pitches and occurred when two balls were thrown from the stands towards Profar. He chased one of them, but a security guard beat him to it. Trash was scattered on the warning track right near the Padres bullpen.

“I feel like when it got over the finish line, they started throwing stuff on the field,” Tatis said. “I felt like something like that shouldn’t happen in a big league game.”

The sellout crowd of 54,119 — the largest at Dodger Stadium this season — was constantly booed.

“The bear had been stung for some time. “It's been stung over the last few years, decades,” Merrill said. “We finally got the firepower, we finally got the team to take it to them. They are a good team. I love the way they play. They give us a fight every time. They don’t stop.”

Security guards rushed the field while Padres manager Mike Shildt and his team huddled flat to the left. They were joined by the referee team. The security service apparently tried to identify potential perpetrators in the crowd.

“We were looking for a stronger security presence in the left corner of the field to make sure that this behavior didn't continue,” crew chief Dan Bellino told a pool reporter, “and to make sure that if anyone were to throw something in the corner.” They would be immediately identified on the field and removed from the stadium.”

The Dodgers did not immediately respond when asked if there had been any arrests.

Manny Machado gathered his teammates in the dugout to give them a boost before play resumed.

The Dodgers have lost four straight games in Game 2 and seven of their last eight playoff games.

The best-of-five series moves to San Diego on Tuesday.

Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty hit Tatis with a pitch in the sixth inning, and Profar exchanged words with Dodgers catcher Will Smith.

“There’s too much of an important series to just blame the guys,” Tatis said. “When he hit me, he just gave me more energy. My boys gave me more energy.”

The Dodgers thought they had tied the game at the end of the first. Mookie Betts hit a deep fly into the corner and left field umpire Adrian Johnson twisted his arm, signaling a home run.

But Profar fought the outstretched arms of fans catching the ball on the webbing of his glove. He barely reacted to his spectacular grab and hopped away backwards as he stared at the astonished fans.

“That was hilarious,” Merrill said of Profar trolling fans. “He's having fun. He played like a little kid and I love that.”

Later there were verbal arguments between fans and Profar.

The Dodgers lost first baseman Freddie Freeman, who exited after five innings with discomfort in his sprained right ankle. He struck out and flew out in two at-bats. Freeman was injured on September 26 and struggled to be healthy enough to make the playoffs.

Just like in Game 1, the Padres quickly took a 3-0 lead. Tatis went deep against Flaherty in the first and former Dodger Peralta added a two-out, two-run shot in the second.

Darvish threw three strikeouts and two walks against his former team. He defeated his Japanese compatriot Shohei Ohtani, who hit his friend twice and ended up on the ground.

“I tried to see how he reacted to some of the throws I threw,” Darvish said through an interpreter. “I also tried to unbalance him by holding him a little longer. I think it worked pretty well.”

Ohtani finished the game 0 for 4 with another strikeout. Mookie Betts went hitless for the sixth straight playoff game.

Flaherty, pitching not far from his birthplace in Burbank, gave up four runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, becoming the first Dodgers starter to reach the sixth inning of a postseason game since Max Scherzer in 2021 .

Max Muncy hit a home run in the ninth for the Dodgers.

NEXT

RHP Walker Buehler will start Game 3 for the Dodgers and RHP Michael King will start for the Padres. King was dominant in the NL Wild Card Series against Atlanta, striking out 12 in seven scoreless innings. King faced the Dodgers four times this season, throwing 12 innings of shutout ball in two games while getting hit hard in the other two games.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB