This season of October is filled with me hoping that the Padres can finally reach the top of baseball and win the World Series. I go into this Padres v. Dodgers series with confidence that the Padres can finally beat the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have plagued my team for years. I feel optimistic about this Padres team, which is filled with energy and has a dominant pitching staff that has been there all year.
This is the time of year that makes my head spin. This is the thing that keeps my heart racing, and makes me lose sleep. The Padres are my team, and they’ve had their share of highs and lows. As I get ready to sit on the couch and turn on the TV, I think to myself with a feeling of pride, this might be the year they win the World Series and reach the top of baseball.
The San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers rivalry has been heated all season long, and they finally met each other in the playoffs to face off in the NLDS. Things got started fast with a 7-5 win for the Dodgers in their first game of the postseason. Shohei Ohtani relished his first taste of postseason play and hit a three-run homer to tie the game, which got the momentum of the game to swing toward the Dodgers. This put the Padres in a bad spot to begin the series, already down 1-0.
The Padres, undeterred, bounced back and put together a dominant performance in Game 2. The Padres’ pitcher, Yu Darvish, pitched seven innings of one run ball, setting the stage for our hitting to go to work. San Diego tied a postseason record by launching six home runs in this game, and winning in commanding fashion 10-2. This put the Padres in prime position heading home for two games to clinch the series.
The first game back at Petco Park started off with a bang, as the Padres would score six runs in the second inning to erase a one to nothing deficit and take a lead 6-1. The Dodgers would make things interesting with a third inning grand slam by Teoscar Hernandez to cut the lead to one. That would be all the runs scored in that game, however, as the Padres bullpen dominated the rest of the game and won 6-5. This put them in a comfortable spot to win the series, needing one win to move on to the NLCS.
The Dodgers would not make that so easy. The Padres started Dylan Cease on short rest and they paid the price for it. The Dodgers got off to a hot start with a solo home run from Mookie Betts and they didn’t look back from there. San Diego’s offense was stifled by a Dodgers pitching staff that ended up using eight different arms from the bullpen during the course of this game. The Padres were outmatched from the first pitch and the Dodgers coasted to an easy win.
The final game of the series, a potential advancement to the NLCS for the Padres and a chance to send the rival Dodgers home. The Dodgers came into that last game feeling pretty good, as the Padres had struggled mightily in the previous game. The Padres entered the game in the midst of a scoreless streak stretching their last 15 innings. It wouldn’t get any better, as Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the Dodgers 325-million dollar pitcher from Japan, quieted the Padres’ bats for five innings without a run. Despite a masterful performance from Yu Darvish that saw him work into the seventh inning, the Padres fell to the Dodgers 2-0. After this heart wrenching loss and another season that ends too early, I try to console myself with the thought that there’s always next year.
The Padres were a team that at the beginning of the season many thought wouldn’t even advance to the playoffs. This team came a long way, and played tough baseball against the Dodgers. While the season came to an end in the NLDS, it was still a very exciting season to experience as a Padres fan.
