The NL West division crown could be decided over the next few days.
Despite being tied with the Philadelphia Phillies for the best record in baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers still haven’t clinched the NL West with six games remaining on their schedule. This is due to the red-hot San Diego Padres — a team they’ll begin a three-game series with Tuesday evening at Dodger Stadium.
At one point, San Diego had a 50-50 record. Now, the Padres are sitting at 90-66. Having won 40 of their last 56 games, the Pads are only 3.0 GB back of the Dodgers. Even more concerning for LA, the Padres do hold the tiebreaker regardless of the series result. If the Padres win the remainder of their six games, they will leapfrog over LA for the division crown.
The breakdown for this series is quite intriguing. The Padres projected to start Michael King tonight in the opener. He’ll be followed by hard-throwing Dylan Cease and proven veteran Joe Musgrove. As for the Dodgers, they’ll roll with rookie Landon Knack tonight. Midseason acquisition Jack Flaherty is pegged to pitch the second game of the series, with Walker Buehler pitching the finale.
Both of these teams know one another exceptionally well. Whenever San Diego plays LA, it’s akin to their World Series. The Padres are a team that thrives off emotion, and there’s no shortage of energetic players within their lineup. The pitching staff is rounding into form with the return of Yu Darvish, and the bullpen is one of the better ones in the league.
As for the Dodgers, this is a very important series. Division standing aside, San Diego has won 7-of-10 versus LA this year. The pitching staff is riddled with injury, and it would go a long way to assuage the concern of the front office for Knack and Buehler to put up quality starts versus a team they could very well see in the postseason.
From a positive standpoint, going for the Dodgers is the health of its lineup. It’s arguably the deepest in baseball. Not only that, but Shohei Ohtani is currently on one of the greatest heaters we’ve seen to date. Even with the potency of San Diego’s offensive talent (Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts, Jurickson Profar, Jackson Merrill, Luis Arraez), it doesn’t compare to the thump and length this Dodgers team has — particularly with the acquisitions of Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman, the emergence of Gavin Lux and Miguel Rojas, and the return of Max Muncy.
There’s a world in which these two teams are the best in baseball. At the very least, even the casual fan can enjoy a real treat with this series functioning as a tasty appetizer for postseason baseball the following week.
