Yu Darvish put on a pitching masterclass to shut down Shohei Ohtani as the San Diego Padres routed the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-2 to claim an emphatic series-leveling victory on Sunday.
Darvish retired Ohtani three times during his gem at Dodger Stadium that left the Padres in the driver's seat of the best-of-five National League Division Series. The series heads to San Diego tied at 1-1.
Darvish, who spent a season with the Dodgers in 2017, completely dominated Los Angeles' vaunted lineup through seven innings, allowing just three hits and one run.
The Padres' bats, meanwhile, went to town on the Dodgers' pitching staff.
Fernando Tatis Jr. set the tone in the first inning, slamming a home run off Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty before David Peralta added a two-run homer in the second inning.
Jackson Merrill's single scored Tatis to make it 4-1 in the sixth. Merrill then connected on a two-run homer in the eighth, and Xander Bogaerts went deep later in the inning to make the score 7-1.
Kyle Higashioka and Tatis each smashed a solo home run in the ninth as the Padres continued to dominate.
"There was a lot of emotion, but we controlled those emotions and we took care of business today," Tatis said afterward.
"If we keep showing up like this, there's no limit for us."
Tensions flared in the bottom of the seventh as Dodgers fans threw trash into the outfield, holding up play for several minutes as security intervened.
"It's a show, and people got a little bit upset because our team went up," Tatis said. "But this is the playoffs, and this is the environment we're built for. I enjoy every single bit of it."
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