Dodgers score off Padres closer Mason Miller in 9th inning to win

SAN DIEGO — Don’t fear the Reaper.

It took a successful ABS challenge, a wild pickoff throw and a play at the plate so close it had to be confirmed by replay. But the Dodgers scored a run off Mason Miller (introduced with pomp and video flames on the scoreboard as ‘The Reaper’) in the ninth inning and beat him and the San Diego Padres, 5-4, on Tuesday night.

With the win, the Dodgers have split the first two games of the series at Petco Park and moved back into a half-game lead over the Padres in the National League West.

The loss was Miller’s first of the season and the unearned run that decided the game was only the third run he has surrendered in 22-2/3 innings this season.

It wasn’t easy.

Miller entered in the ninth inning with the score tied at 4-4. After Will Smith flew out, Max Muncy worked a full count and took a slider near the outside corner that was called strike three by home plate umpire Rob Drake. Muncy immediately tapped his helmet to challenge the call and was rewarded with a walk when ABS showed it off the plate.

Alex Call pinch-ran for Muncy and broke for second as Miller prepared to deliver an 0-and-1 pitch to Andy Pages. But Miller stepped off and had Call hung up between first and second base. His pickoff throw was wild and Call advanced all the way to third base on the error.

Pages fell behind 0-and-2 but fought for eight pitches, fouling off pitches that came in at 101, 102 and 101 mph before driving a fly ball to medium depth right field. Fernando Tatis Jr. caught it and fired home as Call tagged from third. He just beat the throw as Padres catcher Freddy Fermin put the tag on him just a split-second too late. The Padres challenged the call but replay confirmed it.

That settled a back-and-forth game that featured three two-run home runs – one in the first inning by Freddie Freeman and two by Padres hitters Miguel Andujar and Manny Machado off Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan.

Freeman, who came into the game in an 0-for-16 slump, added a second home run, leading off the sixth inning, that tied the score at 4-4 and set up the dramatic ending.

More to come on this story.