WE MEET AGAIN

Evan Davis

The San Diego Padres have upset the New York Mets in 3 games in the Wild Card series, and with that, they have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Dodgers absolutely owned the Padres during the regular season, going 14-5 with a run differential of +60. Even with the Dodgers dominating during the regular season, the playoffs is a different animal. I am happy that the Dodgers are playing the Padres in the NLDS because the Dodger pitchers are super familiar with the opponent, and Padre hitters have had a tough time at Dodger Stadium.

Juan Soto has a .222 average at Dodger Stadium, Manny Machado batting .200, Ha Seong Kim batting .178, and even Trent Grisham batting .115. Although, so far in the postseason their bats have been mashing, so these stats could very well not mean anything. Trent Grisham was easily the MVP during the Wild Card series, both offensively and defensively.

Juan Soto came up big during the series, but I will be looking for Manny Machado to step up more than he did during the Wild Card series. I will be on the lookout to see how the 7-8-9 hitters do for the Padres, because they carried the load in the first 3 games.

The Dodgers Game 1 starter will be likely Cy Young candidate, Julio Urias, who has been dominant at home. During the regular season, Urias had a 6-3 record with a 2.43 ERA and opponents batted .183 against him. Clayton Kershaw will be lined up for Game 2 and he as well has been just as dominant, 6-0 at home with a 2.39 ERA with 80 K’s in 64 IP.

The Padres starting rotation is nothing to sleep on, as evident by their dominance in the Wild Card series vs the Mets. It appears as though Mike Clevinger will be taking the mound for Game 1 of the NLDS, and the Dodgers have done a great job of roughing him up. Clevinger comes into the game with a 9.63 ERA vs the Dodgers this season.

They will most likely get Yu Darvish in Game 2, followed by Blake Snell in Game 3 and Joe Musgrove in Game 4, if necessary. Darvish has a 3.32 ERA at Dodger Stadium, but he has been holding his opponents to a very respectable .227 batting average.

The way Darvish, Snell, and Musgrove handled the Mets though makes me very concerned of the dominance that could be coming against the Dodgers. This rotation seems to have woken up at the right time.

I am loving this Dodgers lineup heading into the postseason. Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger are heating up at the right time, and postseason hero Chris Taylor is also on track to add contributions for the NLDS. Freddie Freeman, arguably one of the clutchest hitters in the postseason, hit .325 during the regular season (.001 behind Jeff McNeil).

It is going to be a very tough and competitive series, but in the end, it’s the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are arguably the best team in baseball. I think this series will definitely be back and forth, as I don’t really see the 11-2 scores by the Dodgers during the regular season.

With the Padres playing with “house money” at this point, all the pressure is on the Dodgers. They need to win this series and move onto the NLCS, and I think that is exactly what they are going to do.

Prediction: Dodgers in 4.