LOS ANGELES — If there are any messages being sent this week, they’re subtle ones.
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The Dodgers and Padres have become quite the rivalry in recent years. The Padres’ stars, particularly Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, get on the nerves of Dodger fans. San Diegans, with their tendency to dislike all things associated with the metropolis to the north – except for that segment of folks who still can’t totally let go of the Chargers – relish the opportunity to, well, beat L.A.
Consider: When the Padres finally slew the dragon from the north as the late Peter Seidler, then owner, memorably predicted, they did everything but push back closing time in the Gaslamp Quarter. The roar that accompanied that 2022 National League Division Series victory might still be echoing in Petco Park all these years later, so hungry were Padres fans to take down the Dodgers, especially after L.A. had beaten them on neutral ground in the 2020 COVID-19-influenced postseason.
It’s also fairly obvious that the Dodgers’ 2022 failure, followed by a 2023 NLDS sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks, helped create the monster in Chavez Ravine that is currently terrorizing all of baseball, including the segment of ownership that is willing to push the game to the brink in its zeal for a salary cap that labor has no intention of ever accepting.
You think Andrew Friedman and the rest of the Dodgers’ front office didn’t redouble their efforts following those two playoff flameouts? The mere possibility of a three-peat now should be proof of how much those losses stung. And the hype video in Dodger Stadium these nights is a pretty accurate representation of the state of mind here, the feeling that the Dodgers and their fans not only don’t care that they’ve become baseball’s villains, they relish it.
As the voiceover narrator puts it, “What’s wrong with being the bad guy? If being the best makes you bad, so be it. … If we’re being honest, sometimes it’s fun to root for the bad guy. … You need teams like us so you can point your finger and say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’”
The villainy works both ways, of course. Witness the first inning of the first game of this current series on Tuesday night.
Machado provokes strong reactions in L.A. because (a) he spent the final months of the 2018 season with the Dodgers, (b) his style of play was, shall we say, overly energy efficient – or, as he put it, “I’m not the type of player that’s going to be ‘Johnny Hustle’” – and (c) after that season he signed a 10-year, $300 million free agent contract with San Diego.
So, in Game 1 on Tuesday night, Brock Stewart’s first pitch to Machado knocked him down. The crowd jeered, loudly, and Machado took the moment to sit there and nod his head as if to say, “Yeah, it’s on.”
There were no further dust-ups in the first two games of this series, a 7-0 Dodgers victory on Tuesday night and a 5-1 Padres victory on Wednesday.
This wasn’t quite on the order of the series in June 2025, when then-Padres manager Mike Shildt and Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages exchanged words on the first night after Pages was hit by a pitch, Tatis and Shohei Ohtani were both plunked and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was eventually ejected the second night, and Roberts and Shildt exchanged words at home plate after Tatis was hit again in Game 3.
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Actually, the teams have been comparatively sedate in 2026. As for their fans on social media … ah, we’ll leave that alone.
But a Dodgers-Padres postseason series would almost certainly bring all of the emotions to the surface. Remember, the Padres not only knocked the Dodgers off in 2022 but had them on the ropes in 2024, one game away from another early elimination, before an 8-0 victory in a Game 4 bullpen game in San Diego reversed the momentum.
Also, keep in mind that after the Padres had knocked out Clayton Kershaw in an early season game in San Diego in 2023, a “Crying Kershaw” meme was posted on the Petco Park scoreboard. Consider, too, that the Dodgers gave fans replica Kershaw World Series rings before the first game of this series.
Coincidence? I think not.
And so here we are again. Los Angeles and San Diego split the first two games of their series this week, and while it might not be a major topic of conversation in either clubhouse this week you can bet these teams are casting wary eyes at each other, aware that fate could throw them together in yet another best-of-five (or maybe even best-of-seven) classic.
First things first. After Wednesday night’s game the Dodgers were still one victory or one Atlanta defeat away from clinching the No. 2 spot among division winners and the right to skip the best-of-three Wild Card round. The Padres’ magic number for clinching a wild card berth, likewise, was one.
Will Smith wasn’t about to look ahead. “We’re still approaching it as trying to win some ballgames,” he said. “I don’t think we’ve clinched the bye yet, so we’re still trying to do that.”
But Roberts acknowledged that it was in the back of his mind.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s in there,” he said.
“We’re pretty familiar with these guys. But yeah, absolutely. You know, we’re gathering information on Robbie Ray (Wednesday night’s starter), and, you know, there are guys in the ’pen and (Michael) King (Monday) and we’ll see (Nick) Pivetta (Thursday). So, certainly.”
And, Roberts noted before Wednesday night’s game in response to a question from San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Tom Krasovic, “They’re a thorn in our side and great competition.”
The feeling, I’m sure, is mutual. And while it might wear both teams out, don’t you wish these teams went back to facing each other 18 times during the regular season instead of 13, as they did this season?
Come to think of it, a five-game playoff series … nah, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.