1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Monday “Padres-Dodgers–Who’s Hot–Who’s Not”
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“Padres–Dodgers…Hot Teams-Big Matchups”
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The Padres chased away alot of ghosts this past week.
They had gone 22-years without winning a playoff series. Ended that anchor around their neck.
They were just (1-10) in playoff games dating back to 2006. That is gone too.
The St Louis Cardinals took a pretty fierce beating in losing the last two games badly.
What a fun season. The 23-come from behind wins. Averaging a league high 6-runs per game. The 7-Grand Slam home runs this season.
A starting rotation that was dominant early, bailed out by a bullpen that has found its roles and is deep as ever in baseball now. The roles surely have been reversed.
Is there a better left side of the infield than the Machado-Tatis combo, with the glove and standing in the batter’s box?
Now the Dodgers are on the radar screen in the best of five series that starts Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
If the Padres scare you because they are hot, then describe the Dodgers. They sledgehammered their way thru the shortened season, going (47-13).
They did this having said goodbye for 4-veteran starters from last year’s team, Kenta Maeda, Rich Hill, Hyun Jin-Ryu and Ross Stripling.
They put up those numbers despite really substandard seasons from Cody Bellinger, Joc Pederson, Keke Hernandez and a myriad of injuries to Justin Turner.
But they are healthy right now and they are ready, bats and arms to face the Padres bats and arms.
There are challenges out there right now for Manager Jayce Tingler. He went to the bullpen 23-times in 3-games in beating the Cardinals.
He faces 5-games in 5-days and knows he must get quality innings from his starting pitchers beginning on Tuesday.
It’s doubtful Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet can be part of the 28-man roster.
There is a huge question right now about the trust-worthiness of Chris Paddack, who has a (7.33-ERA) over his last nine starts, and is suffering from a loss of confidence and a loss of his stuff, having given up 14-homers in 44-innings..
The Dodgers are not home free either. Who knows what a suddenly looking aged Kenley Jansen will look like coming out of the bullpen.
The offensive stats are almost even. LA with a (.257) batting average…San Diego at (.256). The Dodgers with an amazing 222-walks this year. The Padres with the impressive slugging percentage and OPS edge. LA with 128-homers…San Diego had 95 bombs.
The matchups will be fun to tollow.
The Padres and Dodgers are even-steven in terms of batting order. They can both kill you with bombs, but the Padres get more men on base and wear out pitching staffs.
The Dodgers definitely have the edge in quality starting pitching.
The Padres own the shouting rights to the bullpen.
The Padres have the more productive bench.
The Dodgers have a World Series proven manager in Dave Roberts.
The 5-games in 5-days structure favors the team with proven starters.
LA won 6-of-10 from the Friars during the regular season. But now they are both healthy, both hitting bombs.
This has been a lopsided rivalry for years. The Padres have closed the gap,
It was a strange week last week. The Cubs didn’t make it. The big hitting Reds went 22-innings without a run. No Twins, No White Sox, no Indians moving on to play this week. The Best of 3-series was scary. Think what happens now in the next five days.
The winner of this is likely the team going to the World Series because no one can imagine the Marlins-Braves, in the other bracket, will pose much of a threat.
Enjoy this week in baseball. It’s been a long time coming.
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