The best team(s) in baseball
After an incredible series in Los Angeles, the Padres and Dodgers have cemented themselves as the two best teams, and the single best rivalry, in all of Major League Baseball.
What an absolutely incredible series! What an unbelievably entertaining series! Combine the four-game series in Los Angeles with the three-game series the Dodgers and Padres already played in San Diego and you might have the best seven-game series in the history of baseball.
Every game was epic. Each game was different, with it’s own storyline. And, best of all, the San Diego Padres ended up taking three of four in L.A., and four of seven overall. These teams won’t meet again for two whole months and the entire baseball world will be counting down the days until then.
I already gave you my three takeaways from Thursday night’s Padres win, so now let’s get into some of my takeaways from the rest of the series.
The new Yankees/Red Sox
There have been, and continue to be, a ton of comparisons between this new Dodgers-Padres rivalry and the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry of the last twenty years, and there’s a lot to love about that comparison. This article from before the season even started did a good job of summing it up, and the games have lived up to the hype.
That rivalry was great because there was a clear big brother and a clear little brother, a team that was on their way to challenge the big brother but didn’t yet have the same star power. For eight consecutive seasons, from 1998 through 2005, the Yankees finished in 1st place in the AL East and the Red Sox finished 2nd. And since 2001, the Yankees have won a single World Series while the Red Sox have won four of them.
The Yankees were clean shaven and looked down their nose at the Red Sox, it always felt like (this may have been partly A-Rod’s fault). The Red Sox wore beards and drank beer. And, in their own way, the Padres have become the fun team that likes each other while the Dodgers have slowly started giving in to signing big name free agents that nobody else wants in the clubhouse (hi, Trevor Bauer) to stay on the top of the mountain as baseball’s best team.
I am thrilled that the Padres already appear to be a thorn in the side of the Dodgers, hopefully nipping at their heels all season long. I am also excited about the prospect of these two behemoths disliking each other, as we’ve seen fights and shouting at dugouts going on two years now whenever these two teams meet. There’s so much to love about this rivalry, just like there was with Yankees-Red Sox before it got stale, and so much left to happen in it before it ends. Enjoy the ride.
Tatis the Redeemer
Let’s take one second and ignore the fielding errors that Fernando Tatis Jr. is still making, and let’s also ignore the fact that he came into this series still dealing with a shoulder injury that looked like it might sap him of his power.
After not hitting a home run for a week, Tatis hit five home runs in three games, against what is probably the best team in baseball, on the road in a pitcher’s park. After the Dodgers accused him of peeking at the catcher’s sign to know what’s coming before hitting a home run, he came out on Sunday and hit another without glancing in the direction of the catcher.
Before the start of this four-game series, Tatis’ slash line was a paltry .154/.267/.333. By the end of it, his slash line had increased to .246/.338/.632. That is madness. And I doubt he’s done.
Oh, and he’s spicy too. He hasn’t lost any of his joy for the game or love of trash talk. In fact, he’s added a signature stutter-step right before touching third base on his home run trots that will probably get him thrown at a bunch this year. And after homering off Trevor Bauer, who famously pitched a spring training inning against the Padres with one eye closed last month, Tatis covered his eye (see image above).
Everyone in baseball agrees that Tatis is the most exciting player in all of baseball. What he’s out to prove now is that he’s also the best, and apparently a bum shoulder and a readjusted swing isn’t going to slow him down much from accomplishing that goal.
The Arms Race
If last season’s playoff series between the Padres and Dodgers showed us anything, it was that the Padres sorely needed more starting pitching. They could’ve waited around and hoped that Dinelson Lamet got better (which they’re still doing, by the way), or hoped that MacKenzie Gore would be ready to start the season in the rotation (he’s not), but A.J. Preller wanted to catch the Dodgers now.
The Padres started four pitchers in this series that weren’t on their regular season roster last year. None of them had started for the Padres before this season. Only Weathers had “experience” with the Padres, throwing one inning against the Dodgers in the playoffs last year. And, almost without exception, all of them have been great against the Dodgers so far this season.
Ryan Weathers: 3.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 3 K
Yu Darvish: 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 9 K
Blake Snell: 5.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 7 K
Ryan Weathers: 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 6 K
Yu Darvish: 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 9 K
Blake Snell: 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 7 K
Joe Musgrove: 3.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 2 BB, 4 K
I know, you’re saying that the Musgrove start yesterday wasn’t great. In a vacuum, you’re right. However, it was obvious Musgrove didn’t really have great command and didn’t have his best stuff and had to deal with a defense that’s still falling all over itself behind him and all he gave up (despite loading the bases twice) was 2 runs.
It was the opposite of a dominant start from Musgrove but instead of getting blown up in a way that would’ve put the game out of reach, he kept fighting with every pitch. It was exactly what you want from a pitcher that doesn’t have it on a particular day.
But, since this is a coin with two sides, the Dodgers’ starting pitching wasn’t bad this weekend either:
Walker Buehler: 7 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 0 BB, 9 K
Clayton Kershaw: 7 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 7 K
Trevor Bauer: 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 9 K
Dustin May: 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 10 K
That’s even better than the Padres, which is funny since San Diego won the series, but these games came down to clutch hitting against bullpens run ragged. Still, if not for A.J. Preller using his offseason to completely revamp the Padres’ starting rotation, I bet at least half of these games would’ve been laughers in favor of the Dodgers.
So far, almost every button that Preller pushed in the offseason is working out exactly as he had hoped (or planned). Now the team gets a day off before a two-game series against the Diamondbacks and then another day off. They were able to throw all of their energy into winning this series, and did, because they knew rest was coming.