An eventful series continued Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
Most of the intrigue on this chilly night would involve delays — for rain that pushed back the start and for the benches and bullpens to clear in the middle so everyone could congregate around home plate and say a few things.
The rain delay was the second at Chavez Ravine this season after Dodger Stadium had gone eight seasons without one. It was the first time the Padres and Dodgers had cleared the benches in a game against each other since 2021.
The game itself, which began two hours, 15 minutes late, was fairly standard fare.
A night after their bullpen was impermeable for six innings and they stunned the Dodgers with a comeback from four runs down in the seventh, the Padres lost 5-2 Saturday night.
The Dodgers broke a 1-1 tie by scoring three runs on a barrage of singles and against Tom Cosgrove in the sixth inning.
For whatever happened during play, nothing energized the crowd as much as something in which nothing really happened.
In the top of the fifth, the game halted for a few minutes when Padres batter Jurickson Profar took exception to an inside pitch, and Dodgers catcher Will Smith took exception to Profar’s exception.
As the two jawed at the plate, Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts arrived at home plate and suddenly everyone else was there too. It was essentially a confab.
The game resumed, Profar flied out and so did Kim for the third out.
The Padres were trailing 1-0 and had not put a runner on base against Gavin Stone through five innings.
Tyler Wade walked to lead off the sixth inning, and Stone was no longer perfect. But two pitches later, he did have empty bases, as Eguy Rosario grounded into a double play.
Kyle Higashioka, though, followed with the Padres’ first hit, and Jackson Merrill immediately got their second. With runners at the corners, Fernando Tatis Jr.’s double tied the game 1-1 before Jake Cronenworth’s line drive was caught at the wall by center fielder James Outman.
Cosgrove, part of the parade of relievers that threw six scoreless innings Friday, relieved starter Matt Waldron in the sixth and promptly hit Max Muncy. Three one-out singles brought in two runs and chased Cosgrove. Ardian Morejon yielded Shohei Ohtani’s sacrifice fly before ending the inning on a fly ball by Freddie Freeman.
The Padres got a run back in the seventh on a two-out double by Ha-Seong Kim and single by Wade. That ended Grove’s night, and Wade stole second before reliever Michael Grove got out of the inning by striking out Eguy Rosario.
One-out singles by Manny Machado and Profar against Dodgers closer Evan Phillips gave the Padres a couple cracks at another late comeback, but Kim grounded into a fielder’s choice and Wade grounded out.
The Padres will have one more chance to accomplish something no Padres team has in over a decade — win successive series at Dodger Stadium.
The last time the Padres won two straight series in L.A. was their final series here in 2012 and their first series here in ‘13.
A victory Sunday would accomplish the feat similarly, as they took two of three here in September.
Friday’s victory stopped a streak of 11 consecutive regular season series losses to the Dodgers and six straight series losses at Dodger Stadium. On Saturday, the Dodgers won for the 68th time in the team’s 100 games since the start of the 2013 season.