For a first act, it was deafening madness.
For a first step, it was a dizzying leap.
For a Game 1, it was a Game 7, nine innings fought and cheered and inhaled by more than 53,000 bouncing fans as if it were the last bit of baseball on Earth.
Wait, the Dodgers are going to play more games like this?
Yes, absolutely, at least 10 more, as many as 18 more, and bring it on, more, more, more, the senses can’t get enough of what the Dodgers brought to the San Diego Padres on Saturday night in their 7-5 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
Read more: Shohei Ohtani’s three-run home run helps rally Dodgers past Padres in NLDS Game 1
It began with blue flags flapping from the dugout roofs and blue rags raised and waved through the rollicking full house.
It ended with Blake Treinen striking out Donovan Solano with the bases loaded in the eighth, then striking out Manny Machado with the tying runs on base to finish the ninth.
From start to finish, pure madness, amid a rabble that never calmed, never quieted, never quit.
“We’re going to fight, every pitch, every at-bat,” Teoscar Hernández said.
The Padres quickly led by three. Boom! Shohei Ohtani caught them with one swing.
The Padres quickly led again by two. Bang! The Dodgers passed them with a wild pitch and a Hernández rocket.
The Padres were reeling. The Dodgers were unrelenting, piling on after a Machado meltdown and finishing them off with a blistering bullpen that threw six shutout innings.
More, yeah, more, the Dodgers need more of this sort of fire if they are to chase away their October first-round demons and finish off the Padres in a best-of-five rematch of two seasons ago.
“I could really feel the intensity of the stadium before the game began, and I thoroughly enjoyed it,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton.
He wasn’t the only one having fun. This was the Dodgers’ first playoff win in 725 days. Given their recent history, this was arguably the biggest Game 1 victory in a Dodgers postseason since Kirk Gibson went deep against the Oakland Athletics in 1988.
The Dodgers desperately needed this sort of night to avoid the sense of familiar dread that would have descended upon…