SAN DIEGO – On what could have been the final day of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ season, Freddie Freeman and his manager had breakfast. The topic veered to the obvious, and it was a conversation that Freeman has often given Dave Roberts a hard time. Taking Freeman out of the lineup has never been easy, but circumstances deemed it necessary.

Freeman’s sprained right ankle will take weeks to heal. A bruise in the foot added to the pain. His side hurts. Thanks to injections and treatments, he was able to start and finish nine innings just once as the Dodgers battled the San Diego Padres in this National League Division Series. Every game appearance of his has taken hours to put the former MVP back together.

There was no way, Freeman and Roberts agreed, that the first baseman could play in Game 4 on Wednesday, even if the Dodgers were on the brink of elimination.

Roberts wrote Freeman’s name back into the lineup anyway.

“It was a little gamesmanship,” Freeman said. Just under two hours before the first pitch, Freeman was officially scratched.

Gavin Lux homered and had a sacrifice fly as part of a bountiful night for the Dodgers’ short offense. (Photo: Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

So Freeman donned a blue Dodgers hoodie to match the heavy tape he wore on his ankle. Even playing to the extent he has this postseason has required the work of a landowner.

“What he did,” Max Muncy said, “was gladiator-like.”

So, Muncy said, “every guy here went up to Freddie and said, ‘Hey, we got you. Don’t worry.’”

The Dodgers will get another chance to keep their season alive on Friday. The Dodgers’ 8-0 win in Game 4 gave them, and Freeman, another 48 hours. It took everyone to get them there.

Eight Dodgers relievers combined to shut down a Padres lineup that had battered their starting staff. A bottom half of the Dodgers lineup that had combined to hit .196 through the first three games of this series, even without Freeman and an injured Miguel Rojas. The NLDS heads to a winner-take-all fifth match.

“Going into the postseason, it’s a street fight,” Roberts said. “It’s about people, players, and your desire must be greater than that of your opponent. And seeing our guys go through what they went through and seeing how they respond really gets me excited about Game 5.”

They can thank a collective offensive effort. Mookie Betts, mired in a mental funk just days ago amid a history of struggles in October, gave the Dodgers their second first-inning homer in as many nights. Shohei Ohtani and Betts extended the lead to 3-0 an inning later.

Everyone else has boosted the stars. The bottom five spots in the batting order combined to go 10-for-51 through the first three games of this series. As Teoscar Hernández moved up to Freeman’s spot in the order on Wednesday, the six batters that followed went a combined 7-for-25.

That bottom half of the order set the table for Ohtani and Betts in the second, with Gavin Lux walking and Kiké Hernández singled against Padres starter Dylan Cease to generate traffic. Muncy, after a 2-for-13 start to the series, waited until he got a sinker across the plate from Bryan Hoeing and hooked it into the corner for a double. One batter later, Will Smith, who had lost nine at-bats so far this postseason, recreated his division-clinching homer from two weeks ago by driving a fastball a projected 450 feet to center field.

The swing extended the Dodgers’ lead to 5–0, with the five runs representing their largest lead in any postseason game in two years.

Tommy Edman extended the lead in the seventh with a well-executed squeeze bunt down the first base line. One batter later, Lux made the first change he saw from Wandy Peralta for a home run. That was his first home run off a left-handed pitcher in 25 months and highlighted what Kiké Hernández called “a very complete game on offense.”

The Dodgers set the stage by chasing Cease after just 38 pitches. Cease worked on short rest for the first time in his big league career and gave up three runs in 1 2/3 innings. When the Dodgers had a chance to build a big lead for the first time in multiple postseasons, they pounded on the underbelly of the Padres’ vaunted bullpen.

Instead of simply being carried by the superstars at the top of their class, they managed to make up for Freeman’s absence and then some.

“That,” Smith said, “is just who we are.”

Muncy has endured a tough summer. He missed months due to an oblique injury that would last days. A visit to a chiropractor, of all things, cured his discomfort, but only after several visits. And yet, he appeared to make matters worse again during a check swing Tuesday. He chased outside the zone through his first 13 at-bats. He swung recklessly. Appreciated for his patience at the plate, he didn’t look like himself. Until he did. And he almost added a solo homer in his next at-bat, too.

Then there’s Smith, whose years of battling fastballs had shaped the profile of one of the most productive offensive catchers in the sport. He found life against them 13 days ago, driving the two-run shot off a fastball that helped the Dodgers topple these Padres for the NL West crown. Smith went into another skid to start the postseason, with a swing that coach Robert Van Scoyoc called “a little touchy,” Smith said.

Edman filled in for Rojas after the veteran shortstop aggravated his torn adductor in Game 3 and shifted from center field to shortstop. The utility man fit everything the Dodgers love, but the switch-hitter had struggled from the left side of the plate. With right-handed Alek Jacob on the mound and a chance to build on the Dodgers’ lead, he considered a bunt. Roberts agreed.

Lux, the future shortstop who lost his job two weeks before Opening Day, was guarded but sat with a .562 OPS at the All-Star break. For years, the former top prospect balanced offensive identities. A torn ACL and defensive issues cost him a job in consecutive years. So Lux just decided to swing harder and more aggressively. As a hitter capable of swings like the one he unleashed on Wednesday. Lux posted an OPS of .899 after the break. He is tied for the team lead in hits in four postseason games.

Then there’s Kiké Hernández. The Dodgers re-signed him this offseason with an eye on October, but he didn’t record his first playoff start until the Dodgers were eliminated in 2024. He didn’t play at all in Game 3, even though the Dodgers climbed back to within a point of an early deficit. But in Game 4, the old utility man bounced from third base to center field and back again, collecting two hits that night.

Combining for a win, Edman said, was “resilience.”

The Dodgers face elimination without their top star and will see a winner-take-all game Friday night.

“I don’t know what it says, honestly, dude,” Kiké Hernández said. “We were really injured all year and somehow we had the best record in the league. I feel like tonight was an example of what this team is capable of.”

(Top photo of Will Smith: Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)