Steve Webb
NEW YORK, NY — Thanks Padres. Now, beat it. After doing the Dodgers the huge favor of eliminating deGrom, Alonso, Lindor, and the the rest of the Metropolitans, the San Diego Padres are heading into the killing ground for them known as Chavez Ravine. After securing a 6-0 victory in Citi Field on Sunday night, the Padres can now do us all a favor and kindly buzz off.
But you have to hand it to the Friars. They took it to the Mets in this weekend series, winning two games that weren’t even particularly close. And now they have about 48 hours to regroup and face what Padres owner (and O’Malley relative) Peter Seidler calls the “dragon up north.”
Before we get ahead of ourselves and preview the series, let’s look at how they did it in Game 3. It was one of the best games the Padres played all year. How good was it? The Padres played so good that Trent Grisham didn’t even suck. And that is saying something. In fact, it wasn’t only Grisham who was in on the act. Almost every Padre in the starting lineup had a big moment in this series. Whether it was Jurickson Profar’s big homer in Game 1, or Manny’s RBI hit on Sunday, or Josh Bell’s first inning blast on Friday night, or Austin Nola’s big RBI knock to start the scoring on Sunday, the Padres were hitting on all cylinders this weekend. They scored 16 runs in the series, and made some of the best (and highest paid) pitchers on the planet look very human indeed.
But what won this series was the Padres’ pitching, not the Mets’. Yu Darvish in Game 1 and Joe Musgrove in Game 2 both pitched near-perfect outings. And noted Dodger nemesis Blake Snell wasn’t that bad in the one loss, either. If those guys show up big in the NLDS, it’s anybody’s guess who comes out on top.
So they are definitely going to have a head of steam built up as they head into the NLDS. However, one number is going to be on their mind: five. Five is the number of games that the Padres managed to win out of 19 this year. And, there was not a single five-game stretch all year in which the Padres won three times. Not a single one.
But lest Dodger fans get cocky, maybe these same New York Mets can provide us a lesson. Remember 1988? Remember what the Dodgers had done against the Mets in the regular season that year? Diddly squat. Remember who ended up the year wearing a World Series ring? The Dodgers. I think you catch my meaning, amigo.
Baseball is a funny game. And the Dodgers losing to the Padres would be about the baseballiest thing ever.
Best we don’t anger the baseball gods, and just go out and take care of business.
