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Hacksaw’s Monday Bonus Podcast…1:30pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Hot Topics on Table..Stay for Fans Forum
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‘PADRES-DODGERS-WHAT DO YOU THINK”
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That was worth the price of admission at Petco Park.
That was worth all my weekend TV viewing time
The Dodgers-Padres 3-game series was everything you could want.
Tension filled. Heat of the moment action. Heart in your throat innings.
Home runs, huge defensive plays. Dominant pitching.
Loud fans wearing both teams’ colors.
Call it a sneak preview of what could once this calendar turns to October and the schedule reads playoff games.
As we sit here now, we know San Diego and LA may be the top two teams in the National League.
The Phillies pitching staff has been devastated by the Zach Wheeler surgery and the long rehab of Aaron Nola.
The Cubs hitters have been streaky and their frontline pitching has cooled down.
The Mets aren’t hitting and have fewer and fewer healthy pitchers.
Milwaukee is red hot and has been for months, but that is a younger team who have never been deep into the pressure cooker of the post season.
The Dodgers have superb starting pitching. LA has big home run bats.
The Padres have the gold standard bullpen, seasoned veterans and a load of guys able to play defense.
Granted the LA bullpen is a true weak link. But the Padres lack of home run hitters, they are ranked 29th in MLB, is a significant issue too.
They don’t play each other again in the regular season, so we will be scoreboard watching alot going forward.
The wheels turn when Dave Roberts starts making Mike Shildt type moves with his bullpen. And Shildt, with the big IQ, has the added edge with his fundamentally sound big plays, and move the base runners around to create rallies via bunts and sacrifices..
The intangible in all this. Who gets homefield advantage for the most critical playoff series. If it’s at Dodger Stadium, LA has a big edge. If it is in the raucous corners of Petco Park, that fuels the Brown & Gold.
It does not start till the first week of October, and we have some 30-plus games left to play.
Dodgers-Padres, yeah I’d sign up for NL-championship games. We could see that happening. And it would be wilder than we have seen during the regular season.
LA-San Diego, yeah, what you thought it would be. Damn good baseball.
Looks like a pennant race, felt like playoff games. Does not get any better than that. And it’s only late August.
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