SAN DIEGO – After a 6-5 win, the San Diego Padres are one win away from ending the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season again, and they get a chance to do it Wednesday at home, which is perhaps the rawest ballpark of the postseason.

Mookie Betts broke out of his slump and hit a hanging story to left field for a first-inning home run that put the Padres in an early 1-0 hole. They stormed back with the help of a hapless Dodgers defense in the bottom of the second, including two would-be double plays that weren’t.

It started when Manny Machado came out of the baseline to take Freddie Freeman’s pitch on the helmet, sending the ball into left field, and it continued when Miguel Rojas tried to start a double play on his own, but failed to sides came too late. David Peralta hit a two-run double down the stretch to give the Padres the lead, and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit one of the more deplorable 0-2 fastballs you’ll ever see for a long, long home run.

(Machado’s play was legal, by the way. Rule 5.09(b)(4) refers to intentionally interfering with a thrown ball, but that requires the runner to know where the ball actually is.)

What should have been a calm, easy win turned crazy when the Dodgers pulled within a run in the next inning. Three singles and a grand slam by Teoscar Hernández made it 6-5 and brought his team back from the shadows. All they needed was just one run. They only had one baserunner.

Mookie Betts and Manny Machado were back in the heart of the action in Game 3. (Harry How/Getty Images)

Starter Michael King sat down, and the vaunted Padres bullpen – built for exactly these types of postseason games – completely shut down the Dodgers, allowing just a single with two outs in the eighth inning.

Game 4 is scheduled for Wednesday at 9:08 PM ET.

Manny Machado’s heads-up base running makes for a monstrous inning

The Padres trailed 1-0 after Jurickson failed to rob Profar Mookie Betts of a home run. Manny Machado led off the bottom of the second with a well-hit single. Four pitches later, Jackson Merrill sent a grounder to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who fielded the ball and threw it from his knees to second base in an attempt to catch Machado, the leading baserunner.

Machado had other plans. As he took off from first, he swerved to the edge of the infield grass and into Freeman’s throwing lane. The ball flew off the back of Machado’s helmet and rolled into left field. Moments later, both Machado and Merrill were safe. The Padres had Machado’s awareness to thank: unless a first-passed baserunner tries to avoid a tag, he doesn’t have to stay in his so-called running lane.

A contact-heavy Padres offense was capitalized in familiar fashion. Xander Bogaerts reached on a fielder’s choice, after which Machado scored the tying run. There were still no outs when David Peralta hit a two-run double. Jake Cronenworth produced an infield single for his first hit of the postseason. Kyle Higashioka made a sacrifice fly to center field. Finally, two batters later, Fernando crushed Tatis Jr. his third home run of the series.

It all added up to a monstrous six-run inning, and it started with what was literally a heads-up game.

Mookie Betts finally gets to work

Betts, who opened this series hitless in six at-bats (and hitless in his past 22 playoff at-bats dating back to the 2022 NLDS against the same Padres), looked like he stopped his skid two nights ago. In Game 2, he connected on a breaking ball from Padres starter Yu Darvish in the first inning and hit it into the left field corner of Dodger Stadium. He began celebrating as he walked around the bases before Jurickson Profar showed him that joy was unfounded: He reached over the short fence into the stands and, after a notable pause, revealed that he had taken the baseball.

That colored Betts’ premature dejection Tuesday night when Betts stepped to the plate again in the first inning and lofted a breaking ball from Michael King that sent it toward Profar in left field, where the Padres outfielder once again reached the stands.

Only after Betts turned toward the Dodgers dugout — and third base coach Dino Ebel yelled at him to keep rounding the bases — Betts noticed the ball kick off Profar’s glove into the stands for a leadoff home run.

Betts would score another hit in his next at-bat, setting up Hernández’s grand slam to get them back into the game.

Michael King staggers, but recovers to finish the job

With the count full in the top of the first inning, Michael King Betts threw a sweeper. It was understandable. In the regular season, Betts batted .121 and hit .242 against sweepers; Virtually no other pitch, with the exception of Matt Waldron’s knuckleball, caused him so much trouble. And regardless of the type of pitch, Betts hadn’t gotten a postseason hit in two years.

Yet this particular pitch came out higher than King would have liked. Betts hit a hit to give the Dodgers an early lead.

Two innings later, after three consecutive singles loaded the bases, King again paid for an increased sweeper. Hernández hit the ball over the center field wall, abruptly cutting the Padres’ lead to one. The final record-breaking Petco Park crowd, which had gone ballistic in the second half of the second, dropped in volume by several dozen decibels.

However, the home fans would approach their old level again. King recovered to retire each of the last eight batters he faced. A Padres shutdown bullpen took over in the top of the sixth, and it immediately felt like a wise decision; Jeremiah Estrada took out Hernández as he looked.

In the end, King became the winner. He didn’t look like the ace he was last week in the Wild Card Series opener against Atlanta, but he showed enough heart that the Padres can continue to feel good about their prized right-hander.

Buehler seethed as he descended the dugout steps after the second inning. Instead of barking, he threw away his glove. He grabbed something from the top of the dugout bench and threw it to the ground. The outburst summed up the maddening defensive frame that preceded it.

Chants of “Manny!” roared as Machado stepped to the plate for his first at-bat. It got so loud that Buehler pressed his cap to his ear to catch the PitchCom signal and fouled the pitch clock. After Machado singled, a disastrous play began. Freddie Freeman fielded a ground ball from Jackson Merrill, but his throw to second base ricocheted off Machado – whose path had deflected toward the infield grass – and into the outfield.

When Xander Bogaerts hit a chopper to Miguel Rojas, the shortstop (playing through a torn adductor) tried to get to second base himself instead of turning it. Everyone was safe. By the time David Peralta hooked a double down the stretch past a diving Freeman to give San Diego the lead, the damage had already been done.

It got worse. Jake Cronenworth’s infield single against Rojas extended the Dodgers’ misery before Tatis continued his October onslaught with a two-run shot that seemed to break the night wide open.

In a series where the Padres suffocated the Dodgers with dazzling defense, the second-inning breakup could be the Dodgers’ downfall.

(Photo of Fernando Tatis Jr.: Daniel Shirey/Getty Images)