Plaschke: Dodger up! Desperate Dodgers dump Padres and return to Dodger Stadium for Game 5

The opening statement came two batters into the game, Mookie Betts hitting a ball to Chula Vista, the stunned stadium enveloping him in the sweetest of silence.

The follow-up statement came soon thereafter, Shohei Ohtani driving a ball down the right-field line at about 1,000 mph, the silence turning to shock.

The closing argument appeared shortly after that, Will Smith blasting another weak pitch over the center field fence, one dugout dancing, the other one sulking — game over.

Three innings, one message, powerfully delivered Wednesday from the Dodgers to the suddenly harried and humbled San Diego Padres:

This is not 2022. This is not happening again. This is not going to be easy. This is going the distance.

The Padres want to steal this National League Division series again? This time they’re going to have to do it in a winner-take-all game at Dodger Stadium.

Buckle up. Batten down. The fifth and final game in this brawl will take place Friday night at Chavez Ravine, the Dodgers creating the drama with a desperation 8-0 victory at Petco Park on Wednesday night.

It was the largest shutout win in Dodgers playoff history. It gave life to the possibility of one of the greatest postseason series wins in Dodgers history.

“See … you … Fri-day!” chanted a resilient band of Dodgers fans at Petco and, indeed, it should be something to see.

Read more: Shaikin: Shohei Ohtani was supposed to fix the Dodgers’ postseason woes. So why hasn’t he?

It will be the biggest playoff elimination game at Dodger Stadium since Chris Taylor won the wild-card contest with a walk-off homer against the St. Louis Cardinals in 2021.

But this feels bigger than that. This is Dodger Stadium versus Machado, Shohei versus Tatis, grinders versus showboaters, the real freeway series.

These are the two best teams left in the playoffs. Because the New York Mets upset the Philadelphia Phillies in the other National League division series, the winner of this game likely will be the favorite to not only advance to the World Series but also win it.

It is only fitting that this neighborhood standoff, which was swiped and stunned by the Padres in four games two years ago, would come down to one game, one night, one more bit of drama.

The series opener featured a monster first punch by the home-run-hitting Ohtani. The second game was filled with showboating Padres who taunted bottle-throwing fans. When Game 3 came to San Diego, the Dodgers initially didn’t come with it, failing to show in a lackluster loss.

This set up Wednesday’s Game 4, a contest which the Dodgers entered missing two key injured players — Freddie Freeman and Miguel Rojas — and were forced to navigate with no starter and all bullpen.

All this, and there was a stat flying around that teams that lead a five-game series 2-1 at home win the series 82% of the time.

Turns out, the Dodgers had the Padres right where they wanted them.

During pregame workouts they were so loose, they played mini-golf in the clubhouse. When Max Muncy was asked by manager Dave Roberts about the team’s mood, he needed only four words for an answer.

“I told him, ‘Hey, we got this,’” Muncy told Fox.

Yeah, they had this.

The offense swung smartly and freely, especially against Padres starter Dylan Cease, scoring three runs in 1⅔ innings after predicting they could hit him on short rest.

“One of the things we think about is he’s not 100% on rest, we’re going to make him work,” Teoscar Hernández said before the game. ”That’s not a secret for anybody. Try to get on base as many times as we can and just trying to score some runs early in the game.”

The aggressiveness also returned, with Michael Kopech unapologetically throwing inside to a flattened Fernando Tatis Jr.

“We’re trying to support each other and trying to bring the energy, that positive energy to everyone,” Hernández said.

Then there was, of course, the brilliant bullpen work, eight Dodgers pitchers combining to hold the Padres to five singles and two extra-base hits. The Padres haven’t scored in 15 innings dating to the second inning of Game 3, and they have to be thinking about that Friday when they surely will face some of these Dodgers relievers again.

The only thing that could stop the Dodgers on this night, it seemed, was third base umpire Mark Ripperger.

With two out in the fourth, Ohtani daringly sped around third on a sharp grounder just inside the third-base line. He could have stolen a run, except the ball bounced off of Ripperger and eventually was picked up by Manny Machado, who threw Ohtani out at home.

Cameras later captured Ohtani screaming at Ripperger in a rare show of anger.

A day after snoozing their way to the brink of elimination, the Dodgers showed they could be emotionally prepared to deal with their intense little brothers.

They have one more chance, one more moment, one more game to prove it.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.