Dodgers trail behind Padres in NL Division Series after 6-5 loss

The Dodgers will seek to avoid their third consecutive National League Division Series loss when they face the San Diego Padres Wednesday night in San Diego.

The Dodgers fell behind two games to one in the best-of-five series with a 6-5 loss Tuesday at Petco Park, with Walker Buehler allowing six runs in the second inning and Padres starter Michael King and three relievers retiring 16 consecutive batters after Teoscar Hernández's third-inning grand slam.

With Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Gavin Stone and Dustin May unable to pitch because of injuries, the Dodgers will resort to a bullpen game Wednesday, manager Dave Roberts said.

"It's essentially all hands on deck," Roberts said.

Ace Dylan Cease will pitch for San Diego after allowing five runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings in Saturday's 7-5 Game 1 loss in his postseason debut. It will be the first time in his six-year major league career he has pitched on three days rest.

When asked what prompted him to have Cease pitch on short rest, manager Mike Shildt said, "Dylan's willingness to do it."

"He would be on regular rest if needed, but Dylan's ready to go," Shildt said after Tuesday's game. "And we'll see how many bullets he's got. Had his head around it and discussed it with him and he was enthusiastic about it."

Cease tied for second among National League pitchers with 224 strikeouts and tied for fourth with 14 victories.

Cease was 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA. The Padres were 20-13 in his 33 starts.

Cease is 1-1 with a 4.13 ERA lifetime against Los Angeles, including Saturday's postseason start. Dodger designated hitter Ohtani is 5-for-17 for a .294 batting average with three home runs and seven RBIs against Cease, including the postseason.

Game 5, if necessary, would be played Friday at Dodger Stadium.

After the Dodgers took a 1-0 lead on Mookie Betts' first-inning home run, San Diego combined two singles, a double, a home run, two batters reaching base on fielder's choices, an error and sacrifice fly for six runs in the second.

Manny Machado singled leading off the inning. Jackson Merrill, the next batter, hit a ground ball that first baseman Freddie Freeman backhanded, fell to his knees and then his throw hit Machado on the left shoulder.

The play was ruled a fielder's choice and Freeman was charged with an error for allowing Machado to advance to third.

Xander Bogarts then hit a ground ball to shortstop Miguel Rojas. Merrill beat Rojas to second to avoid a force out and Bogarts beat Rojas' throw to first as Machado scored on what was also ruled a fielder's choice. David Peralta doubled in Merrill and Bogarts to give the Padres a 3-1 lead.

Peralta advanced to third on Jake Cronenworth's single and scored on Kyle Higashioka's sacrifice fly. Fernando Tatis Jr. homered one out later to increase the Padres' lead to 6-1.

"I saw our team identity on display," Shildt said. "A lot of what we talk about -- offensive machine. The base running is a part of that. You get Jackson hustling on Bogey's ball, and you get Peralta's ball down the line."

"You've got Jake with a two-strike opposite-field knock to get it going, Higgy with a sac fly. And then you've got Tati that does the damage. So you get a little bit of everything that inning.

"The effort level and the base running was great. And the two-strike hitting was good."

Roberts said, "The pitch to Tatis was a bad pitch, but I think leading up to that, there were just balls that we just didn't convert into outs and it builds the stress in the inning."

The Dodgers cut the lead to 6-5 in the third on Hernández's one-out grand slam that followed consecutive singles by Rojas, Ohtani and Betts.

Los Angeles did not have another batter reach base until Freeman's two-out single in the eighth off Tanner Scott, the fourth of five Padre pitchers. Robert Suarez then relieved Scott and retired the final four batters, striking out two, for his second save of the postseason.

The 16 consecutive batters retired in a game immediately after giving up a grand slam was the most in MLB postseason history, according to OptaSTATS, a sports analytics firm.

The Padres also became the first team in the regular season or postseason to give up a grand slam, score in only one inning and not score after the second inning and win, also according to OptaSTATS

King was the winning pitcher, improving to 2-0 in the postseason, after giving up five runs and five hits in five innings in front of a crowd announced at 47,744.

Buehler (0-1) was charged with the loss, allowing six runs and seven hits in five innings.

ESPN's matchup predictor gives San Diego a 54.2% chance of winning Wednesday, the Dodgers a 45.8% chance.

The 6:08 p.m. game will be televised by FS1.