LOS ANGELES — As the Padres lined up pearl-string style along the first-base line Tuesday before opening a wild-card series against the Braves, each person was shown on the giant video board.
Two of the bigger ovations at Petco Park rained down on coaches who remain mostly anonymous among the parade of multi-million-dollar stars.
The crowd roared when they flashed the image of hitting coach Victor Rodriquez.
When pitching coach Ruben Niebla followed, the eruption sparked to life again.
“I was shocked,” Rodriguez said with a chuckle. “I’ve been in many introductions (including with the World Series-winning Red Sox in 2013) and I never expected something like that. I looked to see if (Manny) Machado and (Fernando) Tatis were behind me.
“We feel like nobody knows us, but I guess somebody does.”
In San Diego, the pair has earned a growing slice of out-of-the-shadows celebrity.
They’ve been critical needle movers for the Padres, intersecting at a time when their massaging ripples through the entire clubhouse of a team that has been the best in baseball since the game’s All-Stars assembled in Texas.
Lessons imparted by both face even the sternest tests of the season after the Padres fell 7-5 Saturday in a wild, bruising NL Division Series opener at Dodger Stadium.
The Padres found some offensive punch, as they had while momentum built during the second-half run-up. And they had the go-ahead run at the plate in the ninth inning when Manny Machado struck out.
But a three-run homer by baseball-basher Shohei Ohtani and bunt single from Tommy Edman that ignited another three-run burst showed, however, that pitching must be razor-sharp against the low-margin Dodgers.
“Listen, (Ohtani’s) a good player,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said. “Clearly he’s done some pretty special things this year. … You’ve got to be even finer against really good players.
“But we have really good players, too. It’s just about the execution.”
Tatis said leads are fragile things against the sluggers in blue.
“We couldn’t hold the door,” he said.
The Padres will be forced to trust in lessons from Rodriquez and Niebla as they claw to even the series Sunday. Each, though, has stacked up blocks of confidence for a team that roared to 93 wins.
One of the coaches would offer enough to color the fortunes of the Padres in 2024. Both at the same time?
That has resulted, so far, in a timing coup during a season where president of baseball operations A.J. Preller and manager Mike Shildt have checked off a lengthy list of winning boxes.
The Padres led baseball in team batting average for the first time, logging a collective Luis Arraez. The pitching staff finished among the top seven in strikeouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio, and fewest walks and hits per innings pitched.
“It’s like having a great offensive and defensive coordinator in football,” Preller said. “Those guys have been incredible all year. Just very consistent messaging. Our players respect them.
“They’ve been a huge part of this thing.”
Offensively, the Padres understand a quintet of runs should be enough to win playoff games.
But, the Dodgers. These Dodgers.
Navigating the smoke demands leaving no run-producing kindling in the fire-starting basket.
“It’s a trust,” David Peralta, who flew out in a pinch-hitting appearance, said of the Padres’ plate approach. “Don’t try to do too much and know our identity. We know we’re not a home run team, that we’re going to hit a bunch of homers. We gotta do things as a team. Move a runner. Bunt.
“(Rodriguez) always says, ‘We have to score one more run than the other team.’ That’s it. Make it simple.”
The impact of Niebla has been as profound for a team that has polished the edges and become more complete than any other in franchise history.
It’s a bit of philosophy, stirred with psychology and biomechanical know-how.
A good eye is good. A good ear is best.
“He’s kind of tinkered on my repertoire a little bit,” Game 1 starter Dylan Cease recently said. “Other than that, I think he’s good on the psychological aspect of the game. … That’s a big part of pitching.”
The shrapnel of Saturday will force Cease to lean on that between-the-ears piece of the puzzle after being roughed for five earned runs on six hits in 3 1/3 innings.
Yu Darvish, mound-bound in Game 2, waits for the baton.
“Good players make good coaches,” Niebla said. “Our job is to make sure we keep trying to get the best out of them.”
The job shifts to an urgent Game 2.
Falling behind the Dodgers by two games in a three-game series, with their offensive oomph in tow, becomes a mountain of the highest order.
Yes, Rodriquez and Niebla are known. More by the day.
And we’re about to find out miles more about their work.
