Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Dodgers watches his three run home run against the San Diego Padres in the second inning of game 1 of a National League Division Series playoff baseball game at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Orange County register/ SCNG) Show Caption1 of 41Expand LOS ANGELES – October history threatened to repeat itself. But the Dodgers had an answer. Nope. The San Diego Padres scored five times in three innings against Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto. But the Dodgers responded in ways they hadn’t when put in the same predicament in last year’s postseason. The offense punched back, the bullpen covered for Yamamoto and the Dodgers won Game 1 of their National League Division Series, 7-5, over the Padres Saturday night. After Yamamoto’s three-inning callback to his major-league debut in Korea against the Padres, five Dodgers relievers held the Padres scoreless on two hits over the final six innings. The Dodgers have fallen behind by three runs or more after the first inning of a postseason game 15 times in their history — this was the first time they came back to win. “I’ll ask you about it. What have we done the last month and a half?” Alex Vesia said of the Dodgers’ bullpen’s performance. “We’ve definitely been prepared for it. We’ve pretty darn good. Just take it one inning at a time. That’s all you can do.” Game 2 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for 5 p.m. Sunday. The win in Game 1 ended a six-game postseason losing streak for the Dodgers, stretching back to a Game 1 victory over the Padres in their 2022 NLDS. “We need to fight. And that’s what we did tonight,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “We didn’t get an ideal start. But guys in the ‘pen picked us up and the offense was relentless with their at-bats.” The common theme in the back half of that six-game October losing streak was poor starting pitching. Yamamoto kept it going. The first two batters he faced reached base. A wild pitch and a passed ball set up a run-scoring ground out. Then Manny Machado sent a splitter from Yamamoto into the left-field pavilion for a two-run home run. It brought back memories of Yamamoto’s start against the Padres in the Seoul Series when he lasted just one inning and gave up five runs. There was a common thread there as well — Roberts said Yamamoto might have been tipping his pitches. “There’s some things that I think we’re going to dig into because I think at second base they had some things with his glove and giving away some pitches,” Roberts said, echoing an issue that came up this spring. “We’re going to clean that up. That’s part of baseball. So it’s on us to kind of clean that up and not give away what pitch he’s going to throw.” If there was a feeling of deja vu from last year’s NLDS, Shohei Ohtani cleared the air — and the fence — with a three-run home run to tie the game in his second postseason at-bat. “I mean, you could almost feel it in the stadium,” Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy said. “Then thankfully we have a guy whose name is Shohei Ohtani and he injected an absolute lightning bolt into the stadium. From then on it was, ‘Alright, we’ve got this. This is not the same as years past. We’re good.’” It was an all-around new experience for Ohtani who went 2 for 5 in his first MLB postseason game. “I could really feel the intensity of the stadium before the game began, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. The Padres got to Yamamoto again in the third inning. A leadoff double by Fernando Tatis Jr. and a two-out walk of Jackson Merrill – when a 1-and-2 pitch call went against Yamamoto – set up a two-out, two-run double by Xander Bogaerts. Over their past four postseason games, Dodgers starting pitchers have recorded a combined total of 23 outs while allowing 18 runs – 12 of those runs in the first inning of the games. During the between-innings interview on the FOX broadcast, Roberts said that would be “the end of the line” for Yamamoto in Game 1. It wasn’t the end of the line for the Dodgers. With one out in the bottom of the fourth inning, Tommy Edman beat out a bunt single. Miguel Rojas singled to bring Ohtani up with two on again. This time, Ohtani dropped a broken-bat single into center field to load the bases for Mookie Betts. A wild pitch brought in Edman and moved the runners up. With the count 2-and-2, the Padres sent Betts to first base with an intentional walk. Freddie Freeman (2 for 5 playing on his injured ankle) bounced into a forceout but Teoscar Hernandez dropped a soft line drive just in front of Merrill in center field. Two runs scored on the two-out hit – a rarity during their postseason losing streak – and the Dodgers had their first lead in a postseason game since the seventh inning of Game 4 in 2022 against the Padres. They added to it with an unearned run in the fifth inning, again building it from the bottom of their lineup. The bottom four hitters in the Dodgers’ lineup – Will Smith, Gavin Lux, Edman and Rojas – were on base eight times on five hits, two walks and an error (turning the lineup over and forcing the Padres to pitch to Ohtani) and scored four of the Dodgers’ runs. “We knew we’re gonna score runs and win a ballgame,” Smith said. “They jumped on us, punched us in the mouth. We knew we weren’t out of it. Just gotta keep fighting.” The Padres’ best record in baseball after the All-Star break featured frequent comebacks and late rallies – Merrill alone had six go-ahead or game-tying home runs in the eighth inning or later. But the Dodgers passed their lead from Ryan Brasier to Alex Vesia and Evan Phillips, retiring 11 consecutive hitters at one point. But Michael Kopech couldn’t find the strike zone. He walked two of the three batters he faced. Roberts went to Blake Treinen who got Bogaerts to pop out before he walked Jake Cronenworth to load the bases — then struck out Solano to strand them all. The Padres put the tying runs on base with two outs in the ninth, bringing up Machado who homered twice off Treinen during the regular season. He struck out to end the game. The five-out save was Treinen’s longest since a two-inning effort in Game 5 of the 2021 NL Championship Series — before his November 2022 shoulder surgery. “Once the phone rings (in the bullpen), we just lock it in and focus on what we need to do,” Treinen said of the six-inning relief relay. “There’s no egos, there’s no, ‘Why am I here? Why am I not there?’ When our name is called, we get our lanes, we go out and execute. We’re a tight-knit group. We’re very fortunate to have a group of guys pulling on the same rope. “From a fan’s standpoint, I feel like that’s gotta be a really fun game to watch. And from a Dodgers standpoint, I’m very grateful we ended up on top.” Related Articles Los Angeles Dodgers | Alexander: Big Game Shohei … did you expect anything different? Los Angeles Dodgers | Dodgers ‘closing the door’ on Clayton Kershaw pitching in 2024 Los Angeles Dodgers | Swanson: Does a Hollywood ending await Dodgers’ Jack Flaherty? 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