SAN DIEGO – There is the phrase “Act like you’ve been there before.”
Well, Xander Bogaerts actually has – and it showed in big moments of the Padres’ 4-3 Game 3 win over the Brewers on Tuesday to stave off elimination in the National League Division Series.
The two-time World Series-winning shortstop impacted the Padres’ victory on both sides of the field. Playing in his 14th season, Bogaerts delivered youthful acrobatics on the basepaths and the veteran wherewithal to make clutch defensive plays that helped push the Padres to a Game 4 on Wednesday.
Tied up 2-2 with two outs in the top of the fifth, the Brewers threatened with runners on first and second. William Contreras sliced a 98 mph ground ball to shortstop off reliever Jason Adam. If it gets by Bogaerts, a run is likely to score. But Bogaerts and his career .978 fielding percentage said otherwise.
Bogaerts dove and knocked down the grounder, prompting Sal Frelick to hold up at third base.
“That was awesome,” said Adam. “Those slow choppers that find the hole are the worst with guys in scoring position because you know if it gets through, it’s an easy run. For Bogey, he knew he couldn’t get the out there. But for him to take that deeper angle, lay out and keep it on the infield was massive.”
The Brewers stranded the bases loaded in the next at-bat. They didn’t take the lead that inning, or the rest of the night.
"I strongly believe the diving play probably was the momentum shift during the game,” said Bogaerts. “If that ball goes by, we're losing by a run now. ... As soon as the ball hit, I didn't even think I had a chance, and the more it kept going, I just dove, and I don't know -- it went in the glove. I was pretty impressed that it hit the glove."
Bogaerts looked like a contestant on his own show -- “Dancing with the Four-Time All-Star” -- in the bottom of the sixth.
With Bogaerts on second base, Miguel Andujar hit a grounder to shortstop Cooper Pratt. All Bogaerts had to do was run to third base … by way of gracefully leaping over the ball and simultaneously dodging the broken bat.
“I had a good view on the ball,” said Bogaerts. “As I tried to avoid the ball, out of the corner of my eye I saw a bat coming, and I tried to move from that.”
Ty France, who watched from the dugout, said, “He’s a really good athlete, so I'm not surprised. But again, not an easy thing to do to jump out of the way and still continue running. That was a key moment for us.”
Bogaerts had taken a lead at second base anticipating the opportunity to score if there was a base hit to the outfield. He believes that if he hadn’t taken that jump, he would have held up at third base. But it gave him enough time to capitalize when Pratt made an errant throw to first base. Bogaerts scored, giving the Padres a 4-2 cushion.
“The baserunning, I take it very seriously,” Bogaerts said. “Maybe I don't practice it as much as possible, but me personally, I don't like giving out outs on the bases. Understanding the situation that we were in, down 2-0, the Brewers, they always fight to come back, they score runs late. Any extra run would have been huge. I didn’t expect the shortstop to throw bad, but if he did, I was pretty much ready to go.”
For all of the little things Bogaerts did in Game 3, it is fitting that they culminated in a big defensive moment to clinch the win.
The Padres took a 4-3 lead into the top of the ninth, when the Brewers tried to rally with runners on first and second. Games 1 and 2 had ended in late-game disappointment for the Padres, and Bogaerts tried to make sure that didn’t happen again.
Christian Yelich jumped on the first pitch from Michael King and grounded it to shortstop. Bogaerts stayed cool under pressure, cleanly fielding the ball, stepping on second base and firing it off to first base.
In just a matter of seconds, Bogaerts handled the intense moment like it was just another day at the park.
“He’s been in this game a really long time and he's won a World Series, he knows what it's like to play in the postseason,” said Fernando Tatis Jr. “He's so good at slowing the game down and not letting the moment get too big. When the ball's hit his way, we expect him to catch it.”