The quote was so apt, Main League Baseball used it on social media to advertise the Southern California showdown on this 12 months’s Nationwide League Division Collection.
“This,” San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado mentioned, “is what everyone wanted to see.”
The Dodgers, it seems, included.
“Me, I wanted San Diego,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández mentioned. “Just because of the adrenaline and the intensity, just the history of these two teams. I think this is the best scenario for us. And not only us, but the whole baseball world.”
Certainly, whereas the Atlanta Braves represented a probable simpler NLDS matchup for the top-seeded Dodgers, a rematch with the Padres — who swept the Braves of their wild card collection this week, establishing an intradivision conflict beginning with Sport 1 on Saturday at Dodger Stadium — brings a singular alternative.
It’s the staff the Dodgers struggled probably the most with this season, dropping eight of 13 matchups regardless of nonetheless profitable the NL West division.
It’s the membership that eradicated the Dodgers, on this identical spherical, two Octobers in the past, a consequence that renewed questions concerning the franchise’s current postseason failings.
It’s additionally an opponent that — in a probably helpful dynamic for supervisor Dave Roberts and his employees — ought to have the Dodgers’ full consideration.
“We know they’re gonna bring a lot of energy,” utilityman Chris Taylor mentioned. “That’s the way they always play us. And from that aspect, I think we understand we have to also bring the energy to an extent. We understand they’re gonna give us everything they have. And they’re a really good team too. So we have to play our best baseball.”
Two years in the past, within the groups’ final NLDS assembly, the Dodgers virtually seemed to be trying previous the Padres. They’d completed 22 video games forward of San Diego within the standings. They’d dominated the rivalry within the common season that 12 months. And, in hopes of profitable their second World Collection in a three-year span, there didn’t appear to be a lot concern of a possible early elimination.
Then, in a four-game whirlwind, the Padres performed with extra power, higher execution and, as some Dodgers personnel expressed within the wake of their upset defeat, an undeniably greater degree of depth.
“As a manager, you never want to say that somebody wants it more than you, because I think that speaks to the preparation part of it, the mental part of it,” Roberts mentioned within the wake of the 2022 postseason. “But I will say that, you look at that dugout versus our dugout, there was more intensity there.”
Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts, left, talks with pitcher Clayton Kershaw throughout a exercise at Dodger Stadium on Thursday.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
Roberts raised that latter level once more final week, itemizing it as an element within the Dodgers’ struggles in opposition to the Padres of their first three matchups earlier this season (after they misplaced seven of their first 10 head-to-head video games).
“I think it’s pretty easy to see that when we’ve played them … they came out more intense than we did,” Roberts mentioned, forward of the golf equipment’ division-deciding collection at Chavez Ravine. “And that’s got to change.”
Change, it did. Regardless of their game-losing triple-play within the opener of final week’s assembly, the Dodgers rallied to take two in a row in opposition to the red-hot Padres, clinching an eleventh division title within the final 12 years through their first, and solely, collection win in opposition to San Diego all season.
That consequence allowed the Dodgers to relaxation up this week, whereas the Padres have been pressured to play a wild-card collection at dwelling in opposition to the Braves. And on each Tuesday and Wednesday, Dodgers gamers gathered for team-wide watch events to see who they’d face within the NLDS — one other potential sign of the Dodgers’ renewed focus degree this October.
“I think that’s been a focus, trying to stick together as a team through this stretch,” Taylor mentioned, evaluating it to the camaraderie the staff inbuilt a COVID-isolated bubble throughout their 2020 World Collection run. “I know guys have talked about, in the bubble, we felt like we were super close. We were kind of forced into that environment. So [we’re] trying to replicate that a little bit … not use this layoff like a vacation.”
And whereas this week, the Dodgers mentioned they weren’t precisely rooting for a sure opponent (even when the banged-up Braves appeared like a extra manageable foe), they actually weren’t dissatisfied to see the Padres advance.
“I can’t tell you no,” reliever Evan Phillips mentioned, when requested if the 2022 postseason will add any additional weight to this 12 months’s rematch. “Obviously, the postseason matchup a couple years ago makes it a bit bigger for us. This time around, we definitely want to get them back.”
Yoshinobu Yamamoto to start out Sport 1
Jack Flaherty was initially pegged to start out Sport 1, however the Dodgers have determined to start out Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Saturday and make Flaherty the Sport 2 starter Sunday.
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations, mentioned Thursday the change was made to be able to make Yamamoto accessible for a possible Sport 5 with an additional day of relaxation.
