Dodgers blow lead in 7th-inning debacle, lose NLDS to Padres

The disaster unfolded in slow motion, a train wreck of an inning, of a playoff series, of a once-promising and historic 2022 season.

The Dodgers entered the bottom of the seventh Saturday night leading the San Diego Padres by three runs.

They ended the frame trailing by two, a combination of bad execution, puzzling decision-making and relentless Padres hitting paving the way for a 5-3 loss in Game 4 of the National League Division Series that eliminated the Dodgers from the playoffs.

In their worst nightmares, they couldn’t have concocted a more harrowing scene.

“The shock factor is very high,” manager Dave Roberts said. “Disappointment very high. It’s crushing.”

The decisive seventh inning began with a walk by reliever Tommy Kahnle, then a first-pitch single from Padres postseason hero Trent Grisham.

It escalated when Austin Nola reached on a single to second base, scoring one run and putting the tying runs aboard.

It got worse when Roberts went to the bullpen, bypassing his best reliever, Evan Phillips, in case of a ninth-inning save opportunity and instead summoning Yency Almonte, who promptly gave up an RBI double to Ha-Seong Kim and RBI single to Juan Soto that tied the score.

Then, it all culminated in a shocking moment now destined for infamy.

At the start of a two-out at-bat to Jake Cronenworth, a pickoff signal from the dugout, which was intended to give left-handed reliever Alex Vesia more time to warm up in the bullpen, was missed. Almonte fired a first-pitch ball to the plate instead.

Despite the mistake, Roberts still decided to make the pitching change in the middle of the at-bat. It backfired moments later, when Vesia gave up a two-run single that broke the tie and ultimately decided the game.

That 2019 loss to the Washington Nationals in Game 5 of the NLDS?

It suddenly has company.

“We didn’t accomplish our goal, and that’s the bottom line,” Roberts said. “Yeah, this one hurts.”

This wasn’t supposed to happen to this year’s Dodgers team.

Not after they won a franchise-record 111 games, giving them the postseason’s top overall seed.

Not after they talked about this being their most talented lineup, their deepest bullpen, their most complete team of the last 10 years.

Especially not after Roberts brashly guaranteed a World Series title before the start of the season, when he said on a radio show that the Dodgers would be champions so long as “we play a full season and there is a postseason.”

A full season will be completed. But the Dodgers fell woefully short of hanging around until the end.

The day he made his title prediction, Roberts also added a caveat about the need for healthy starting pitching. In their disastrous loss at Petco Park, however, it was a capitulation by the bullpen that sealed their three-games-to-one defeat in the best-of-five series.

After the bullpen was one of the team’s few strengths during the first three games, three relievers combined to give up five runs on five hits and two walks in the fateful seventh inning.

Roberts was left answering questions about several of the team’s decisions, as well.

“Nothing I can say is going to make it feel any better,” Roberts…