SAN DIEGO — It felt appropriate when Blink 182’s Tom DeLonge roamed the stands during a live eighth-inning performance Tuesday night and invited a record 47,744 raucous fans to Petco Park to sing along to his song, which has become a celebratory event. anthem on 19 Tony Gwynn Dr.

The Dodgers had one big banger, but the Padres did all the little things.

They persevered when given extra opportunities, matched up perfectly in the bullpen with Game 3 of the National League Division Series in the balance and, most importantly, played the sharp defense that their counterparts lacked in a 6-5 win that once again saw San got into trouble. Diego is on the verge of sending his division-winning rivals home early in the postseason.

But for all the parallels to 2022, all the feelings of euphoric déjà vu in the Gaslamp District, this year feels different. If the Padres finish the job at home on Wednesday, it won’t surprise anyone like it did two years ago, when their 89-win team defeated the great Dodgers by 111.

This time the Padres aren’t sneaking up on anyone.

This time they are a ruthless unit with few, if any, glaring weaknesses.

This time, they might be the best team in the entire playoff field.

“Besides us playing,” said Fernando Tatís Jr., “I see us playing even better.”

The Padres right fielder was already off to one of the best starts to a postseason ever — his 2.151 OPS through four playoff games beginning Tuesday was the most of any player ever with at least 18 at-bats — when he suffered a stadium-shaking, grueling two-run blast that sent Petco Park into a frenzy and turned a snowballing second inning for Walker Buehler and the Dodgers into an unmitigated disaster.

The box score for Buehler looked ugly: five innings, seven hits, six runs (all earned), one walk, no strikeouts. But neither his final line nor his fiery walk off the field after the disaster, which ended with his glove and several objects being thrown into the Dodgers’ dugout, painted the full picture of his outing.

All six of San Diego’s runs on Tuesday night came home in a barrage that could have been completely avoided if Buehler’s defense had backed him up.

This is the danger of a broken infield against an unrelenting, contact-heavy offense. The Padres have the fewest strikeouts and most hits in the sport and have 10 walk-off wins this year. They will put the ball in play. And on Tuesday they made the hobbled Dodgers pay.

“When you give a good team extra outs, it’s hard to roll outs,” manager Dave Roberts said.

With Manny Machado on first base, Jackson Merrill belted a grounder that forced Freddie Freeman, who is battling a severely sprained ankle, to dive to right. Freeman’s throw from his knees to second base deflected off Machado, whose circuitous route cut off a clear path into left field.

The deadlier error, however, came one batter later when Xander Bogaerts hit another potential double play ball. Shortstop Miguel Rojas, whose adductor strain ultimately forced him out of the game before the end of the night, decided to run for the bag himself to try to get to second instead of going to second. Both runners were safe, and the Dodgers’ promising first-inning lead — something the starting pitching-poor club hadn’t had in a postseason game since Game 1 of the 2022 NLDS — was gone.

David Peralta, a former Dodger and unsung hero of the Padres’ two wins in the series, followed by pulling a fastball in and out of the plate down the line for a two-run double. Jake Cronenworth placed an infield single. At that point, only two balls had left the infield and the Padres had already scored three runs.

Buehler would bounce back with a sacrifice fly and a pop-out as he made his only obvious foul pitch of the catastrophic inning, leaving an 0-2 fastball in the nitro zone of the postseason’s hottest hitter. Tatís, who went 10-for-18 with four home runs in October, did not miss.

“Man, when I hit him, I don’t know, I just blacked out and started yelling at my dugout, the energy was through the roof,” Tatís said.

The past two games showed the different ways this version of the Padres can win games and cause matchup misery.

Even without Joe Musgrove, they have starting pitchers capable of turning gems, like Yu Darvish did with seven innings of one-run ball in Game 2. Sunday night’s off-field antics at Dodger Stadium raised the temperature level of the series, but also distracted from the actual results of the game, which was an absolute blow by a Padres offense that became the first team in MLB history to launch six home runs in a road playoff game.

They can win by stomping, but they can also wreak havoc on an opponent’s will by putting ball after ball after ball into play, as they did during Tuesday’s six runs. It’s a high-contact lineup that’s equipped to cause chaos even if the three-time batting champion at the top isn’t producing.

“You see it every night. It’s someone else getting the big hit, making the big defensive play or making the big pitching spot when we needed it,” Jake Cronenworth said. “Whatever it is, I think that’s what makes this group so special. It’s not just one or two people carrying us, it’s a collective group. Everyone leans on each other.”

And if that offense produces a lead in the middle innings, there may not be a more formidable bullpen in the sport.

After general manager AJ Preller made aggressive moves to acquire relievers Tanner Scott, Jason Adam and Bryan Hoeing at the deadline, Padres relievers ranked in the majors’ top five in ERA, strikeout percentage and strikeout-to-walk ratio. . They were instrumental in the late-season success of a Padres team that had the best record in baseball after the break.

Now, when we look at the top high-leverage threats, the bullpen is even scarier.

On the rare occasions when the starting pitcher falters, as Michael King did in Game 2, with a grand slam by Teoscar Hernández cutting the lead from five points to one, the group behind him is a steady presence. Jeremiah Estrada, Adam, Scott and closer Robert Suárez supported King by combining, allowing only one baserunner the rest of the way.

“This is a family here,” said Estrada, who in a career year sacrificed his eighth-inning role for lower leverage options to accommodate the deadline additions. “I was like, ‘Look, you guys gave me the opportunity. That’s all I wanted, just a chance to show you guys who I can be. I’m going to give you my best. These guys come in, that’s more help.

If Suárez is right — after a shaky end to the season, the Padres stuck with him in the ninth-inning role, and he has rewarded them with 3.1 scoreless frames this postseason — the bullpen is a force in its own right. But the Padres won’t need their relievers the same way the Dodgers did in a do-or-die Game 4, with the reeling club one loss away from a third consecutive first-round exit at the hands of a lower-seeded division. enemy.

For the Dodgers, Tuesday’s loss brought some positives.

Mookie Betts, hitless in his previous 22 postseason at-bats entering the evening, homered in the opening frame on a nearly identical deep drive to the one Jurickson Profar had robbed him of the game before. After rounding first, Betts found himself near the pitcher’s mound on his way back to the dugout, assuming it had been caught before returning to the base path and continuing his trot. Luck has not been on his side lately, but perhaps that is the case after an evening with two goals. Getting Betts up and running will be crucial to the Dodgers’ survival.

After the blow-up inning, Buehler bounced back and held the Padres scoreless over the next three frames. In the fifth inning, Roberts made a visit to the mound after a single by Machado, but allowed Buehler to continue. After a wild pitch to Jackson brought Merrill Machado to second base, the Dodgers intentionally walked the star rookie on a 1-1 count. Leaving Buehler behind and providing the free pass paid off, as Buehler escaped the inning unscathed.

That was one less out needed from a Dodgers reliever, with a bullpen game on tap to keep their season alive and avoid being on the wrong end of another riveting celebration at Petco Park. The Padres plan to start top prospect Dylan Cease, who threw just 82 pitches while going 3.1 innings in Saturday’s Game 1, on short rest.

“Not a great situation,” Roberts said. “But as far as winning a ball game tomorrow, I think we’re in a really good place.”

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