Alanna Rizzo putting Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on blast aged poorly after NLDS Game 4

Games 2 and 3 of the Dodgers-Padres NLDS featured some truly ugly scenes. It's hard to tell which one was more frustrating, the 10-2 loss that included bad behavior from both the Padres and Dodgers fans, or the 6-5 loss that wasted a clutch Teoscar Hernández grand slam and included the most miserable inning Walker Buehler and the Dodgers' defense has seen all year.

The Dodgers were very much on the back foot going into Game 4, with faith waning within the fanbase. And why shouldn't it have, really? Starting pitching was exactly the problem it was predicted to be, and the bats almost top to bottom just sputtered and died during those two games.

After the Game 3 loss, Alanna Rizzo called out the lack of fight she was seeing from the Dodgers. She said on Dodgers Territory of Dave Roberts' in-game interview after the second inning and before the grand slam, "I was very surprised at Dave's in-game interview [...] it almost felt like he already admitted that the game was over."

To be fair, that's not a bad read. It was a terrible inning, but the Dodgers still had at least 21 at-bats left in the game to make something happen. It spoke to a larger issue that the Dodgers seemed afflicted with during Games 2 and 3 — a stunning lack of fire — which was also compounded by the fact that no one even batted an eyelash at Manny Machado's decision to run into the throwing lane to spoil what could've been a double play.

But even if it might've been delayed for a few days, the back-to-back losses clearly sparked something in the Dodgers. LA mounted a bullpen game for Game 4, and their hitters finally seemed to shed the postseason demon that's been sitting on their chests for the last few years.

Dodgers force a decisive NLDS Game 4 with shutout rout of the Padres

Mookie Betts must still be breathing a sigh of relief after the game he had. He broke an 0-for-22 postseason hitless streak during Game 3 with a homer to start the scoring in the first, but he proved that it wasn't a fluke during Game 4 with another homer during his first at-bat and an RBI single in his second.

Shohei Ohtani collected an RBI between the two Betts ones, Will Smith hit a two-run homer in the third, Tommy Edman scored another on a great squeeze bunt in the seventh, and even Gavin Lux got in on the home run fun to score two more and put the Dodgers up 8-0. Meanwhile, the Padres occasionally put up some good at-bats against the Dodgers bullpen, but they were kept to seven hits, two walks, and no runs.

The energy was just different all around. In the top of the fourth, Ohtani walked, and with two outs, Teoscar Hernández hit a bouncer to third base. It could've gotten away from Machado and scored Ohtani easily, if it weren't for the fact that it hit third base umpire Mark Ripperger's arm as he was calling it fair. Machado grabbed it and fired it to the plate, where it beat Ohtani by multiple steps to end the inning.

In the dugout, Ohtani was caught on camera watching the replay and looking angrier than we've probably ever seen him before, directing a yell and a curse at Ripperger and surprising even his fellow teammates. That was what we'd been wanting to see in the last two games!

The Dodgers will head back to LA for Game 5 on Friday.