The Dodgers and Padres have developed one of baseball’s most heated rivalries over the past few years, particularly since San Diego suddenly morphed to become a contender in 2020 in an attempt to halt Los Angeles’s National League West supremacy. But the on-field results have not matched the compelling story line surrounding these Southern California nemeses.
San Diego has won exactly one-third of its 48 regular-season matchups against Los Angeles over the past three years and was swept in the NL Division Series in its lone postseason matchup against the eventual World Series champions in 2020. In fact, the Padres haven’t won a season series against the deep-pocketed Dodgers since ’10—and this year’s team may be the best edition yet of the “dragon up the freeway.” (L.A. is just the fifth team in MLB history to win at least 111 games.) So how could the Friars have a chance against the Dodgers in this best-of-five NLDS, which they go into without their top three starting pitchers after using them in their wild-card round victory against the Mets?
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