By Pedro Moura
FOX Sports MLB Writer

SAN DIEGO — While Mookie Betts retreated to Petco Park’s visiting dugout after driving in the Dodgers’ only run Friday, he pumped his fist four times and repeatedly clapped his hands.

He had produced a sacrifice fly, not the sort of achievement Betts usually celebrates. But he could see as well as anyone that his teammates needed a boost. 

Betts’ exhortations could not enliven the Dodgers, who submitted another lifeless performance in Game 3 of this National League Division Series. In nine at-bats with runners in scoring position, they could not produce a single hit.

The Dodgers’ season, so spectacular for six months, is now on the brink after two miserable offensive performances in three days. With their 2-1 victory, the Padres earned themselves the chance to end the Dodgers’ season Saturday in San Diego. They have looked superior to their 111-win rivals since midway through Game 1 of this series.

Jake Cronenworth’s single gives Padres early lead over Dodgers

The San Diego Padres jumped to an early 1-0 lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers thanks to an RBI single by Jake Cronenworth.

Betts’ celebrations were about the only ones performed by the Dodgers and their fans Friday. Ten minutes before first pitch, the Petco Park video board played a clip from Dodgers starting pitcher Tony Gonsolin’s Thursday Zoom session with reporters, in which he said he could not imagine the San Diego crowd generating more noise than the Dodgers are used to daily at Dodger Stadium.

All night, fans wielded the comment as fuel while celebrating the first Padres’ postseason victory in front of them at Petco Park. This town has been starved of success since this jewel of a stadium opened near the San Diego waterfront, and the Padres took extra care to keep tickets to Game 3 in the hands of locals.

Gonsolin was not long for the game. He lasted only four outs, surrendering one run, before Dodgers manager Dave Roberts summoned the first of five relievers. As in Game 2, the Dodgers’ relievers did enough to keep the game close, and their hitters produced plenty of scoring chances. They just did not turn those into runs.

Betts began the game with a single and took second base when a bouncing Blake Snell pitch briefly escaped catcher Austin Nola‘s view. But no other Dodgers put the ball into play until the second inning, so Betts stayed there. 

Snell, boasting better stuff than even his lofty norm, struck out five of the first seven Dodgers to bat. Come the third inning, he briefly lost his way against the final two hitters in the lineup. Trayce Thompson walked, and Austin Barnes singled, bringing up Betts again. He laced a liner down the third-base line, only for Manny Machado to snag it. After Freddie Freeman walked to load the bases, Will Smith popped up to end the inning. 

Meanwhile, the Padres converted their early scoring chance. After Juan Soto doubled and Machado walked in the first inning, Jake Cronenworth poked a single into center to score Soto. Gonsolin was so unsteady that left-hander Andrew Heaney began to warm behind him then, and Heaney replaced Gonsolin after two more Padres reached base in the second inning.

In that inning and the next, Heaney pitched around trouble to register scoreless innings. He could not complete the feat in the fourth, for Trent Grisham sent his first pitch into the bleachers. Later that inning, Soto fell a few feet short of doing the same. Grisham’s homer stood as the decisive run.

Trent Grisham hits a solo home run to give the Padres a 2-0 lead

Trent Grisham doubled the San Diego Padres’ lead on the Los Angeles Dodgers with a home run in the fourth.

In the fifth, Betts lifted his sacrifice fly, scoring Thompson, who had singled and taken third on Barnes’ double. The bottom of the Dodgers’ order was not their problem Friday; the middle of it was. Trea Turner, Freeman and Smith could not convert the chances their less-heralded teammates created.

Of course, the Dodgers should not be ruled out until they are out. They have come back from the brink before, including on their way to a World Series win in 2020. But doing so in 2022 will require an abrupt shift. 

Their stars will have to start driving in runs.

Pedro Moura is the national baseball writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the Dodgers for The Athletic, the Angels and Dodgers for the Orange County Register and L.A. Times, and his alma mater, USC, for ESPN Los Angeles. He is the author of “How to Beat a Broken Game.” Follow him on Twitter @pedromoura.

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more