Dodgers vs. Padres NLDS grades over first four games

The Dodgers and Padres will play Game 5 of their winner-take-all National League Division Series on Friday night at Dodger Stadium. Two days later, the winner hosts the Mets in the NLCS. Let's take a look at the first four games of this series, starting with Game 5.

So far it has been evenly matched as each team split the two games at their home park, narrowly winning the first home game and suffering a significant defeat in the second game.

In four games in the NLDS, the Dodgers and Padres each have two wins. Each team reached base 46 times via hit, walk or hit by pitch. Los Angeles scored 22 runs and the Padres scored 21.

The away team has scored first in all four games so far, hitting a home run in the first inning.

Wednesday night's victory at Petco Park in San Diego was the Dodgers' first away playoff win since Game 5 of the 2021 NLDS in San Francisco, which saw them eliminated seven games on the road in the postseason.

Longevity and positional diversity

Kiké Hernández started at third base in Game 4 and was 2 for 4, giving him eight different postseasons with the Dodgers in which he started a game, along with 2015–20 and 2023. This equals Justin Turner (2015–22) for most of those years in the Dodgers' franchise history.

Both Pee Wee Reese (1941-56) and Jim Gilliam (1953-66) started in seven different postseasons, all of which were World Series games for these two.

Chris Taylor also now has seven different years of starting a postseason game with the Dodgers (2017-22, 2024), as he started in center field in Game 4. He and Hernández actually swapped positions twice, with Hernández moving to the outfield in the third inning with Michael Kopech on the mound, then back to third base in the sixth with Evan Phillips pitching.

“A lot of running. I like running third better between innings than running up the middle,” Hernández joked after the game, according to Dodger Blue.

Taylor added another change in the ninth inning when Andy Pages came in to replace Teoscar Hernández on defense and moved to center field while Taylor moved to left field. Taylor is the only Dodger to ever play third base, center field and left field in the same postseason game, and he has done so twice, including Game 4 of the 2021 NLCS.

In the regular season, Taylor is one of two Dodgers to accomplish the 3B-CF-LF trifecta in a game, doing so on September 18, 2019 against the Rays. Tommy Davis is the other Dodger to achieve this. He started in left field for the Pirates on July 29, 1961, before later moving to center and then third base.

More notes

The Dodgers' six through nine batters in the first three games of the NLDS had just eight hits, all singles, in 39 at-bats (.205), with two runs scored and one RBI. In Game 4, this group was 5 for 16 (.313) with three RBIs and three runs scored, Gavin Lux's two-run home run in the seventh provided the finishing touch.

The 8-0 victory in Game 4 was the Dodgers' most lopsided shutout win in postseason history, one run better than Game 5 of the 1965 World Series against the Twins. The Dodgers have earned 22 shutout victories in their postseason history.

The Dodgers are 10-6 in winner-take-all games in the postseason, including 5-3 in this current streak of 12 straight playoff appearances. They have won the last three such games – 2020 NLCS Game 7 against Atlanta, the 2021 Wild Card Game against the Cardinals at home (Taylor, hello) and Game 5 of the 2021 NLDS in San Francisco.