The Padres look to end the Dodgers' season in Game 4 of the NLDS

SAN DIEGO (CNS) – The Padres will try to advance to the National League Championship Series for the second time in three years at the expense of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday night at Petco Park.

The Padres took a 2-1 lead in the National League Division Series with a 6-5 win Tuesday at Petco Park. They combined for a six-run second inning, with starter Michael King and three relievers striking out 16 consecutive batters after Teoscar Hernández's third-inning grand.

Game 5 of the best-of-five series, if necessary, would be played at Dodger Stadium on Friday.

Dylan Cease will pitch for the Padres 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's the first time in his six-year major league career that he's taken a three-day break.

When asked what motivated him to pitch to Cease during a short layoff, manager Mike Shildt said, “Dylan's willingness to do it.”

“He would rest regularly if needed, but Dylan is ready to go,” Shildt said after Tuesday’s game. “And we’ll see how many bullets he has. I was aware of it and discussed it with him and he was thrilled.”

Cease ranked second among National League pitchers with 224 strikeouts and fourth with 14 wins.

Cease was 14-11 with a 3.47 ERA. The Padres had a 20-13 record 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 Shohei Ohtani is 5-of-17 and has a .294 batting average with three homers and seven RBIs against Cease, including the postseason.

With Ohtani, Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Gavin Stone and Dustin May unable to pitch due to injury, Los Angeles will resort to a bullpen game on Wednesday, manager Dave Roberts said.

“It’s basically all hands on deck,” Roberts said.

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

Manny Machado hit a single to lead off the inning. Jackson Merrill, the next batter, hit a ground ball that Los Angeles first baseman Freddie Freeman hit backhanded, fell to his knees and then hit Machado in the left shoulder with his throw.

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

Xander Bogarts then hit a groundball to stop Miguel Rojas. Merrill hit Rojas to second to avoid a force out, and Bogarts beat Rojas' throw to first while Machado scored on a fielder's decision. David Peralta doubled 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. later hit a home run to extend the Padres' lead to 6-1.

“I saw our team identity on display,” Sheldt said. “A lot of what we talk about is an offensive machine. Baserunning is part of it. You get Jackson to push bogey’s ball, and you get Peralta’s ball on the line.”

“You got Jake with a two-strike boost upfield to get it going, Higgy with a sac fly. And then you have Tati doing the damage. So you get a little bit of everything in this inning.”

“The effort and baserunning were great. And the two-strike punch was good.”

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

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

Los Angeles didn't have another batter reach base until Freeman got two outs in the eighth against Tanner Scott, 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.

According to OptaSTATS, a sports analytics company, 16 batters were retired in a game immediately after giving up a grand slam, which was the highest number in MLB postseason history.

According to OptaSTATS, the Padres also became the first team in the regular season or postseason to give up a grand slam, scoring in just one inning and not scoring after the second inning and winning

King was the winning pitcher and improved to 2-0 in the postseason after giving up five runs and five hits in five innings before an announced crowd of 47,744.

Dodger starter Walker Buehler (0-1) was blamed for the loss as he allowed six runs and seven hits in five innings.

ESPN's matchup prediction gives the Padres a 54.2% chance of winning on Wednesday and Los Angeles a 45.8% chance.

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

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