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“RIVALRY WEEKEND”
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Big weekend of baseball downtown.

Dodgers-vs-Padres..Friday-Saturday-Sunday.

Yes it’s early in the season, but the standings tell you a different story.  The Dodgers have this huge lead over the Padres and the rest of the teams in the NL-West.

Yes the Padres beat them in South Korea on opening weekend.  And yes they did beat them again back here in California.

But fortunes have changed since then.  The Dodgers are blazing, with 14-wins in their last 16 games.

With apologies in advance, the Padres are nothing more than a .500 team right now, at (20-20).

What becomes critical is you don’t want this to be a Dodgets sweep because by Monday the deficit could be huge, and even if it is May, that’s alot of baseball to be made up in the standings.

Oh the hate that exists over all those years of LA dominance.
Ah the memories of the Padres taking out the Dodgers in 1-post season series.

But here we are this weekend, with all the ill-will returning.

You know, the Dodgers ‘the best team money can buy’.  Yes the 700MK-signing of Shohei Ohtani.  Yes the deals that took on big contracts like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

But remember too the couple of years spending sprees the Padres went on, the massive contract extensions, and the whopping trades to put the team back in the playoff hunt, that have not really worked out.

But let your eyes clear for a moment and realize a couple of things.

This Dodgers team is in first place, with a phenomenal top 6-in the batting order.
But you tell me how any other club could survive what has happened to their pitching staff.

The Dodgers are (26-13) coming to Petco Park, and they have done this with 11-pitchers on the disabled list, yes, 11-arms.

Up until this week there was no Walker Buehler for 23-months.  He returned from elbow surgery this week, throwing 13 pitchers 95-96-97 mph.  There is no Clayton Kershaw, coming off shoulder surgery.

Phenom Dustin May is out till late summer coming off his own elbow procedure.  Last year’s rookie Bobbie Miller is still on the DL with shoulder woes, and fellow rookie Em Sheehan never got out of the Cactus League healthy and is still shutdown.

Add in a mix of relievers, from Blake Trienen to Joe Kelly who have all been on-off the DL list.  That’s a ton of adversity, but look where they are at this hour.

Agree with me, for the Blue to be 13-games above .500-with all those injured arms is pretty impressive.

And now the weekend ahead, becomes a ‘prove it weekend’ for the Padres.  They have to get this done against Tyler Glasnow, Yosh Yomamoto and then Buehler.

Rivalry weekend, sure it.  But almost a must win weekend.  You don’t want the Padres to be 9-and-a half games out of first place by breakfast on Monday.

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