Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES, CA — Every year, the media annoints a team as “the team nobody wants to play.” It’s usually a lower seed who has heated up at just the right time, and has been playing good baseball down the stretch. This year’s “team nobody wants to play” is the San Diego Padres.
Indeed, the Padres turnaround from mid-season mediocrity to playoff team is remarkable. Our TVs have been flooded night after night with images of a rockin’ Petco Park after another comeback win. The Friars record after the All-Star break of 43-20 is the best in the sport. The San Diego team ERA after the break is an NL-best 3.38 and their .768 team OPS trails only the Diamondbacks and Dodgers for tops in the senior circuit. By any measure, the San Diego Padres are rolling.
The Dodgers’ early exits of the last two seasons have allowed a certain fatalism to set in to the Dodger fanbase. Social media these days is full of handwringing about how the Dodgers aren’t even going to make it out of the first round, how the Padres have finally scaled the mountain and reached parity with the Dodgers. True, the critics will say, the Padres beat the Dodgers in the 2022 NLDS, but that was more like Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson— a lucky punch from a palooka sometimes fells a heavyweight champ. Now, in 2024, it is clearly a series of evenly matched teams. To which, I respond…
So what?
Is this version of the Padres the best that we’ve seen in a quarter of a century? Yes, it is. Indeed the Padres’ 93 wins in 2024 trails only the 98 wins of the World-Series-bound 1998 Padres for best record in franchise history. But again…
So what? This is not our first rodeo, Dodgers fans. This is the LA FREAKIN’ DODGERS we’re talking about here, and their record is every bit as impressive as the numbers that San Diego put up this year. Since the All Star break, the Dodgers’ record is 42-23, just two games off the pacesetting Padres. The Dodgers’ team OPS is better than the Padres, they have scored more runs than the Padres, gotten more hits than the Padres, hit more home runs than the Padres, and stolen more bases than the Padres. Clearly, the Padres’ offense, while solid all year, isn’t quite the equal of the three-MVP monster that is the LA Dodgers.
The only place where you’d have to give the edge to the Padres is in the pitching department. Their starting corps is as good as any in the postseason. Although they may be without Joe Musgrove for a time, they can still throw Michael King, Dylan Cease, Yu Darvish, and Martin Perez at you in a short series. However, even this is not necessarily determinative. The bullpen of the Padres, while good, is not impenetrable. Closer Robert Suarez has looked shaky at times. His ERA over his last 15 appearances is a very non-closer-like 6.14. Jason Adam has looked great, but as we saw in the Wild Card Series, he can be gotten to as well. His ERA has gotten progressively higher as his innings have piled up this year, so while I wouldn’t exactly say he’s out of gas, I will say he’s showing signs of wear and tear. Tanner Scott‘s ERA has more than doubled since being acquired at the deadline from the Marlins. You don’t want to bank on beating up a team’s bullpen, but I would take the Dodgers over the Padres in this department.
Here’s where I think we are. If the Dodgers get production from the big three (Ohtani, Freeman, and Betts), the pitching will take care of itself. We Dodger fans just need to match the energy of Petco Park. Those Padres fans, a doormat for so long, are hungry. We need to match that hunger here in LA. So bring on the Padres, bring on the pundits picking them to win, bring on the rest of the country rooting for the Big Bad Dodgers’ downfall. It will only make the victory all the sweeter.
Let’s do this…
Have you subscribed to the Bleed Los Podcast YouTube channel? Be sure to ring the notification bell to watch player interviews, participate in shows & promotions, and stay up to date on all Dodgers news and rumors!
