The quote was so apt, Major League Baseball used it on social media to advertise the Southern California showdown in this 12 months’s National League Division Series.
“This,” San Diego Padres third baseman Manny Machado mentioned, “is what everyone wanted to see.”
The Dodgers, it seems, included.
“Me, I wanted San Diego,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández mentioned. “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, whereas the Atlanta Braves represented a probable simpler NLDS matchup for the top-seeded Dodgers, a rematch with the Padres — who swept the Braves in their wild card collection this week, establishing an intradivision conflict beginning with Game 1 on Saturday at Dodger Stadium — brings a singular alternative.
It’s the group the Dodgers struggled probably the most with this season, dropping eight of 13 matchups regardless of nonetheless successful the NL West division.
It’s the membership that eradicated the Dodgers, in this identical spherical, two Octobers in the past, a outcome that renewed questions concerning the franchise’s current postseason failings.
It’s additionally an opponent that — in a doubtlessly helpful dynamic for supervisor Dave Roberts and his workers — ought to have the Dodgers’ full consideration.
“We know they’re gonna bring a lot of energy,” utilityman Chris Taylor mentioned. “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 in the past, in the groups’ final NLDS assembly, the Dodgers nearly seemed to be wanting previous the Padres. They’d completed 22 video games forward of San Diego in the standings. They’d dominated the rivalry in the common season that 12 months. And, in hopes of successful their second World Series in a three-year span, there didn’t appear to be a lot concern of a possible early elimination.
Then, in a four-game whirlwind, the Padres performed with extra power, higher execution and, as some Dodgers personnel expressed in the wake of their upset defeat, an undeniably larger stage of depth.
“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 mentioned 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 level once more final week, itemizing it as an element in the Dodgers’ struggles against the Padres in their first three matchups earlier this season (once they misplaced seven of their first 10 head-to-head video games).
“I think it’s pretty easy to see that when we’ve played them … they came out more intense than we did,” Roberts mentioned, forward of the golf equipment’ division-deciding collection at Chavez Ravine. “And that’s got to change.”
Change, it did. Despite their game-losing triple-play in the opener of final week’s assembly, the Dodgers rallied to take two in a row against the red-hot Padres, clinching an eleventh division title in the final 12 years through their first, and solely, collection win against San Diego all season.
That outcome allowed the Dodgers to relaxation up this week, whereas the Padres have been pressured to play a wild-card collection at residence against the Braves. And on Tuesday and Wednesday, Dodgers gamers gathered in the Dodger Stadium dugout membership for team-wide watch events to see who they’d face in the NLDS — one other potential sign of the Dodgers’ renewed focus stage this October.
“I think that’s been a focus, trying to stick together as a team through this stretch,” Taylor mentioned, evaluating it to the camaraderie the group constructed in a COVID-isolated bubble throughout 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 mentioned they weren’t precisely rooting for a sure opponent (reliever Evan Phillips joked that he simply wished to see most chaos, like three 15-inning video games).
But, they definitely didn’t appear dissatisfied that the Padres superior.
“I can’t tell you no,” Phillips mentioned when requested if the 2022 postseason will add any additional weight to this 12 months’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 important challenges. They had the perfect document in the majors in the course of the second half, going from 50-50 to 93-69. They possess a deep rotation, even after shedding Joe Musgrove to an elbow damage Wednesday, and maybe the perfect bullpen in baseball.
They’re additionally led by Machado, the previous Dodger turned Chavez Ravine villain who, like many Padres gamers, has appeared significantly motivated through the years at thought of reclaiming what has historically been a Dodgers-dominated rivalry.
“We wouldn’t want it any other way,” Padres supervisor Mike Shildt mentioned Wednesday evening of transferring on to face the 98-win Dodgers. “ It’s going to be a wonderful series. We’re super excited about it.”
Unlike two years in the past, the Dodgers’ anticipation seems to be the identical.
“My reaction was this is going to be a good fight,” mentioned shortstop Miguel Rojas, who dyed his hair white for the beginning 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.”
