SAN DIEGO — The Padres converged from all directions and noticed the same thing when postseason baseball returned here this weekend with fans in the ballpark for the first time since 2006.
On his drive to Petco Park for Game 3 of this division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, San Diego first baseman Wil Myers said he could feel the energy.
“I saw a bunch of Padres fans, and I didn’t see any Dodger blue,” said Myers, who, as the longest-tenured player on this San Diego team, has endured plenty of evenings in which Dodgers denizens driving south far outnumbered Padres partisans in the seats.
Second baseman Jake Cronenworth, who lives downtown, heard more than his usual share of “Go Padres!” calls from fans as he zipped along on his scooter through the lively Gaslamp Quarter en route to the field. And third baseman Manny Machado was given a heads up during a haircut on Thursday’s off day.
“My barber Ramon let me know, ‘Hey, the city’s kind of going crazy’,” Machado said, adding: “The city’s been waiting a long time for this.”
By the time the Padres edged the Dodgers, 2-1, Friday night to position themselves for one of the biggest October surprises in history, a city without a championship in any of the four major North American professional men’s sports was dreaming bigger than ever.
Friday’s sellout crowd of 45,137 was boisterous from the start and, thanks to Cronenworth’s run-scoring single in the first, Trent Grisham’s solo homer in the fourth and what has become the team’s customary lockdown pitching in this postseason, the party threatened to rage into next week.
Chants of “Beat L.A.! Beat L.A.!” thundered around the ballpark as closer Josh Hader galloped through a 1-2-3 ninth inning, bouncing around as if by laser pointer. The Padres haven’t played in a League Championship Series since 1998 and now had two chances to win just one game to return again.
Joe Musgrove, who grew up in San Diego and fired the only no-hitter in Padres’ history, was set to start a potential clincher at home on Saturday night. And if something went wrong there, a do-over awaited the Padres with Game 5 on Sunday in Los Angeles. Insurance rarely felt so good.
The mighty Dodgers suddenly needed a Houdini-like escape. After setting a franchise record with 111 wins this season, they found themselves dangerously close to landing in history next to the 116-win Seattle Mariners team that was bounced in the 2001 A.L.C.S. by the Yankees.
The Padres wanted nothing more the last several weeks of the season than to earn a playoff spot and ensure some home games. One of the things Manager Bob Melvin said upon taking the job last November was that he vividly recalled bringing his Oakland A’s to Petco Park midway through the 2021 season and being wholly impressed with a Tuesday night crowd of 40,000.
This year, with the payroll ratcheted up to fifth in the majors at a club-record $237 million, the Padres drew crowds to match: Their attendance also ranked fifth in M.L.B. with an average of 36,931 fans per game.
The Padres viewed Friday and Saturday nights — and, they hope, many more evenings this October — as a way not only to thank the fans, but to include them in their long-awaited autumnal celebration.
The fans did not disappoint, and they did not resell their tickets to Dodgers fans. The swirl of colors and noise was so chaotic that the players couldn’t even be sure what colors they saw.
“This was all Padre fans out there,” Machado said, admiringly. “It was all yellow. It was awesome to see.”
Gone were the typical chants of, “Let’s Go Dodgers!” Few were the Dodgers caps and jerseys.
“During the season, you see a lot of blue at Petco Park,” Padres left fielder Jurickson Profar said. “But tonight, it was all gold. I love it.”
Yellow, gold, whatever. Some details may have been debatable, but the big picture could not have been more clear.
“They had a big say in what went on today, too,” Melvin said of the emotional lift the crowd provided. “It felt like the last couple innings there was so much momentum in the place that it was hard not to get it done.”
Melvin pointed out that relievers Luis García, Robert Suarez and Hader each threw fastballs that were clocked in triple digits and “you don’t see 100 miles an hour often, especially out of three guys in a row. So I’m sure it had a big say in it.” Machado called it one of the best two crowds he’s ever experienced, alongside the Miami atmosphere in the World Baseball Classic.
The ultimate nightmare for Roberts, of course, would be if his team was eliminated by the Padres. Then, not only would arguably the best Dodgers club in history have been sent home early, but the manager, who lives in northern San Diego County, would be at home surrounded by Padres fans and October buzz.
In another of baseball’s endless and unique twists, the last time before Friday that the Padres hosted a playoff game with fans in attendance was on Oct. 5, 2006, against St. Louis — and the San Diego leadoff hitter that day was Dave Roberts. Also in the lineup, catching, was Josh Bard, who currently serves as the Dodgers’ bullpen coach.
Roberts said he was reminded of that Friday via a text from his son. “It was crazy going back into that period of time,” he said.
As Musgrove prepared for the start in which he hoped to close out the Dodgers, he, too, has plenty of memories as a kid growing up in San Diego, attending games in old Qualcomm Stadium and, eventually, idolizing Jake Peavy, who won a Cy Young Award with the Padres.
Musgrove remembered going early with a friend one day to watch batting practice at the old stadium when Phil Nevin, now managing the Los Angeles Angels, hit a pitch into the seats. Musgrove said he and another kid stared at each other briefly before racing to retrieve the souvenir.
“We ended up getting in a little tussle, and I punched the kid,” Musgrove said. “I think it might have been the first kid I ever punched.”
Musgrove said he just sort of looked at his nemesis afterward “like, oh, my gosh, what did I just do? I got booted out by one of the security guards. I think that was my first Dodger game, getting kicked out.”
Happily, he said, he was able to re-enter with his parents, who were still in the parking lot and hadn’t yet entered the stadium.
“No one had parents around, either,” Musgrove said, chuckling at the memory. “So it was just two kids fighting in the outfield.”
His passion runs just as thick today, though much to the chagrin of the hitters going up against him and much to the delight of his hometown team, this month he is channeling it in a vastly different way.
