For the first time this season, the Dodgers and the Padres will meet in their fight for NL West supremacy. Currently, the two teams are separated by only a half game, with the Dodgers having one more win than the Padres with the same number of losses.
The Padres have used the Dodgers’ struggles to their advantage, being able to stay so close to them even though the Padres offense has been lackluster all season – specifically, the big three of Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Jackson Merrill.
The Padres have been hanging on with the strength of their bullpen and their starting rotation hanging in there.
Between those three aforementioned players, they have a combined OPS around .600. Machado and Merrill aren’t even reaching base a third of the time, and Tatis has yet to homer. The Padres’ run differential is +7 while the Dodgers’ is + 94. While the top of the Dodgers lineup has been better overall than the Padres, it is similar how the two offenses have been much more reliant on the rest of the lineup to power them to winning games.
The Dodgers have been finally dominating games like they should be. Yes, it was against the San Francisco Giants and Anaheim Angels, but the Dodgers are 5-0 in their last five games with a combined 39 runs scored, including one game in which they scored 15, their highest mark so far this season. The pitching staff only allowed five runs across that winning streak.
And so, this series with the Padres will be a test to see if the offense truly has gotten back on track. The series begins Monday night in San Diego with a matchup between Michael King and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Lifetime, Shohei Ohtani has seen King pretty well. He has a .429 BA, with three homers and a 1.681 OPS. Max Muncy, Mookie Betts, and Teoscar Hernandez have all homers off of King as well. King is 3-2 on the season with a 2.63 ERA and 50 strikeouts.
The Padres are coming off of a sweep of the Mariners in Seattle, in a game where Gavin Sheets went 3-for-3 with two homers, a double, and two walks. Ty France went 3-for-4 with three RBI, and those two players have been some of the main contributors to the Padres’ success.
While the division won’t be won or lost on the back of this series alone, it could be a good indicator of the current direction of both teams – whether the Dodgers offense actually is back, and if the Padres big three can get hyped up and going at the plate.
Monday game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Padres
- Ballpark: Petco Park, San Diego
- Time: 6:40 p.m.
- TV: SportsNet LA, MLB Network (out of market)
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
