The quote was so apt, Major League Baseball used it on social media to promote the Southern California showdown in this year’s National League Division Series.
“This,” San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado said, “is what everyone wanted to see.”
The Dodgers, it turns out, included.
“Me, I wanted San Diego,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said. “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.”
“It’s felt like it’s been on a collision course for that,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman added. “It’ll be really good baseball.”
Indeed, while the Atlanta Braves represented a likely easier NLDS matchup for the top-seeded Dodgers, a rematch with the Padres — who swept the Braves in their wild card series this week, setting up an intradivision clash starting with Game 1 on Saturday at Dodger Stadium — brings a unique opportunity.
It’s the team the Dodgers struggled the most with this season, dropping eight of 13 matchups despite still winning the NL West division.
It’s the club that eliminated the Dodgers, in this same round, two Octobers ago, a result that renewed questions about the franchise’s recent postseason failings.
It’s also an opponent that — in a potentially beneficial dynamic for manager Dave Roberts and his staff — should have the Dodgers’ full attention.
“We know they’re gonna bring a lot of energy,” utilityman Chris Taylor said. “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 ago, in the teams’ last NLDS meeting, the Dodgers almost appeared to be looking past the Padres. They’d finished 22 games ahead of San Diego in the standings. They’d dominated the rivalry in the regular season that year. And, in hopes of winning their second World Series in a three-year span, there didn’t seem to be much concern of a potential early elimination.
Then, in a four-game whirlwind, the Padres played with more energy, better execution and, as some Dodgers personnel expressed in the wake of their upset defeat, an undeniably higher level of intensity.
“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 said in the wake of the 2022 postseason. “But I will say that, you look at that dugout versus our dugout, there was more intensity there.”
Roberts raised that latter point again last week, listing it as a factor in the Dodgers’ struggles against the Padres in their first three matchups earlier this season (when they lost seven of their first 10 head-to-head games).
“I think it’s pretty easy to see that when we’ve played them … they came out more intense than we did,” Roberts said, ahead of the clubs’ division-deciding series at Chavez Ravine. “And that’s got to change.”
Change, it did. Despite their game-losing triple-play in the opener of last week’s meeting, the Dodgers rallied to take two in a row against the red-hot Padres, clinching an 11th division title in the last 12 years via their first, and only, series win against San Diego all season.
That result allowed the Dodgers to rest up this week, while the Padres were forced to play a wild-card series at home against the Braves. And on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dodgers players gathered in the Dodger Stadium dugout club for team-wide watch parties to see who they’d face in the NLDS — another potential signal of the Dodgers’ renewed focus level this October.
“I think that’s been a focus, trying to stick together as a team through this stretch,” Taylor said, comparing it to the camaraderie the team built in a COVID-isolated bubble during their 2020 World Series 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.”
This week, the Dodgers said they weren’t exactly rooting for a certain opponent (reliever Evan Phillips joked that he just wanted to see maximum chaos, like three 15-inning games).
But, they certainly didn’t seem disappointed that the Padres advanced.
“I can’t tell you no,” Phillips said when asked if the 2022 postseason will add any extra weight to this year’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.”
The Padres pose significant challenges. They had the best record in the majors during the second half, going from 50-50 to 93-69. They possess a deep rotation, even after losing Joe Musgrove to an elbow injury Wednesday, and perhaps the best bullpen in baseball.
They’re also led by Machado, the former Dodger turned Chavez Ravine villain who, like many Padres players, has seemed particularly motivated over the years at idea of reclaiming what has traditionally been a Dodgers-dominated rivalry.
“We wouldn’t want it any other way,” Padres manager Mike Shildt said Wednesday night of moving on to face the 98-win Dodgers. “ It’s going to be a wonderful series. We’re super excited about it.”
Unlike two years ago, the Dodgers’ anticipation appears to be the same.
“My reaction was this is going to be a good fight,” said shortstop Miguel Rojas, who dyed his hair white for the start of October. “Two teams that have been playing really good baseball, starting the year together in Korea. It’s been back and forth all year. We know each other really well and I feel like it’s going to be a really good series for baseball and the whole world of sports.”
