SAN DIEGO –– Mason Miller’s command was just a little too wild Tuesday night.

Both to the plate, and to first base.

With the Dodgers and Padres tied in the ninth inning at Petco Park, San Diego’s superstar closer made a mess for himself to blow his first game of the season. 

First, he missed with a full-count slider to Max Muncy, having a called third strike flipped to a walk via Muncy’s ABS challenge.

Then, with Alex Call in the game to pinch-run for Muncy at first base, Miller caught Call breaking from the bag –– only to misfire on his pick-off attempt.

Instead of quelling the Dodgers’ threat, Miller’s errant throw was too hard and too wide. It deflected off the outstretched glove of first baseman Ty France. It trickled all the way up the right field line as Call turned on the jets and raced safely to third. 

“We got a break there,” manager Dave Roberts said. “And we took advantage of it.”

Indeed, in the Dodgers’ eventual 5-4 win, Andy Pages would bring Call home with a sacrifice fly at the end of an epic nine-pitch battle –– one teammate Freddie Freeman, who hit two homers earlier in the game, called “one of the best at-bats I’ve ever seen.”

It wasn’t the prettiest turn of events. But against Miller, who hadn’t been charged with a loss since before the Padres traded for him at last year’s deadline, the Dodgers (30-19) certainly didn’t mind.

“No one’s gotten him,” Roberts said. “(But) we feel good about our guys.”

The ninth-inning score marked only the third run he has allowed all season.

For a Dodgers team that has struggled to capitalize on situational opportunities, it couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

Even after Miller’s miscue, the victory still required some heroics from Pages, who fell into an 0-2 hole against Miller before fighting off a pair of 100 mph fastballs and two more sliders on the edge of the strike zone. Finally, on pitch No. 9, he shot a line drive to right field that was just deep enough for Call to beat a relay play to the plate; his toe tapping the dish a split-second before the tag arrived.

What it means

The Dodgers are back in first place for now, regaining the NL West lead they surrendered after getting shut out on Monday night. They have also set up a series rubber-match on Wednesday, when Shohei Ohtani (who continued his torrid week at the plate with two doubles and an RBI grounder) will take the mound.

Tuesday marked only the second time Miller, who has a 0.79 ERA, had not kept an opponent scoreless this season. It also cost the Padres’ bullpen only its seventh losing decision of the year, outdueled by five scoreless innings of Dodgers relief from Edgardgo Henriquez, Alex Vesia, Blake Treinen, Tanner Scott (who got four crucial outs in the seventh and eighth) and Will Klein (who, after the higher-leverage arms were burned earlier, got his first career save in the ninth).

“It’s good to feel the energy from both sides in the ninth inning, all the way through there,” Klein said. “I enjoyed it. Even when Mason was out there when I was out there, it was cool to be a part of that.”

Who’s hot

Freeman hadn’t been lately, with either his swing or his health.

Not only did the first baseman enter Tuesday in an 0-for-16 slump, but Roberts said he had been under the weather lately, too, looking “a little bit tired” as he tried to rebound at the plate.

On Tuesday, it happened, with Freeman using a new swing cue –– “swinging up, trying to finish higher,” he said –– to snap his recent struggles with his pair of home runs; the 23rd multi-homer game of his career.

His first one was an opposite-field drive that just cleared the short wall in left field for two runs in the first. The next was a more towering shot, tying the game at 4-4 in the sixth with a solo blast to right.

Not only did the two long balls help end a power drought for Freeman –– who had just one home run in his previous 35 games –– but it marked his first game with multiple extra-base hits since April 6.

“Cage work was a lot better today,” said Freeman, who is still batting just .260 this season. “To see an instant result in the first at-bat obviously helped the mind a little bit as I went along.”

Who’s not

Emmet Sheehan became the first Dodgers pitcher tasked with pitching on only four days’ rest this year.

In a four-inning, four-run start that ended with an early hook after just 67 pitches, he did not last long.

After Freeman’s blast gave the Dodgers an early lead, Sheehan immediately squandered it when Manny Machado took him deep for a two-run blast in the bottom of the first inning. Sheehan gave up another two-run homer in the third to Miguel Andujar, marking the fourth time in nine outings this year he has failed to hold an opponent to no more than three runs.

It could’ve been worse too, had a fly ball from Ty France in the fourth not hopped over the wall for a ground-rule double; which held baserunner Jackson Merrill up at third.

Sheehan’s ERA is now 4.93, as his search for consistency this year continues to drag on.

Up next

Shohei Ohtani (3-2, 0.82 ERA) will return to two-way duties on Wednesday, set to hit and pitch when the Dodgers face breakout right-hander Randy Vásquez (5-1, 2.68 ERA) in the series finale.