Game 1 Preview: San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers
Game 1 of the NLDS between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers starts tonight. Here's everything a Padres fan would need to know before first pitch.
Tonight, in a game at Dodger Stadium, the San Diego Padres will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in game 1 of their National League Division Series.
The Padres went 5-14 against the Dodgers in the regular season, and got beat by a wide margin in more than a few of those games. If you think the playoffs play out the same way the regular season went, you would assume that the Padres were going to get steamrolled.
Because the Dodgers had a bye in the first round, they’ll be throwing their best healthy starting pitcher tonight (Julio Urías) at the Padres. In 4 starts against the Padres this year, Urías went 3-0 and finished with a 1.50 ERA.
By contrast, the Padres will be throwing their #4 starter, Mike Clevinger. Clevinger had a bit of a roller-coaster season, returning after missing the 2021 season (Tommy John surgery), and finished with the lowest ERA+ of his career. In 3 starts against the Dodgers this season, he went 0-2 and finished with a 9.69 ERA.
Everything is telling you that the Padres are going to get their asses kicked. But the everything is just one thing: the regular season.
This is the playoffs. Clevinger’s record against the Dodgers doesn’t matter. The Padres record against the Dodgers doesn’t matter.
To put it in Jake Cronenworth terms, the ships are burned. There is nothing to go back to. What is in the past has no relevance to what lies ahead. If the Padres find a way to win game 1, they’ll stand a good chance of winning this 5-game series. If the Padres find a way to win the series, nobody will remember or care about what they did (or didn’t do) in the regular season.
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