The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres both took care of business in their respective Wild Card Series, setting up a highly-anticipated matchup between the two National League West foes in the NL Division Series.
While the Dodgers won the NL West for a record eighth straight year, the Padres had their best season in a while to earn a postseason berth.
Given the nature of the shortened 60-game schedule in 2020, the Dodgers and Padres met 10 times in the regular season. San Diego was hoping to make it a close division race, but ultimately, L.A. proved to be took much by taking six of the 10 matchups between the two teams.
All that matters now is the NLDS, but before the series begins Tuesday night at Globe Life Field, a recap of their regular-season meetings.
Aug. 3-5: Dodgers take two of three at Petco Park
The first of three series between the Dodgers and Padres came at Petco Park at the beginning of the season. It didn’t take long for the Padres to show the Dodgers they had some competition, taking the first game by a score of 5-4.
Walker Buehler was limited to five innings, allowing three earned runs; Chris Paddack gave up the same three runs in six innings. Trent Grisham, Wil Myers and Fernando Tatis Jr. all went deep for San Diego, while home runs from Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger weren’t enough for L.A.
The Dodgers bounced back to take the final two games to win the series, however. Dustin May had a strong outing in the second game, tossing six innings, allowing just two runs and striking out eight in a 5-2 win.
After falling behind 2-0 early, the Dodgers responded with five runs late, capped off by an AJ Pollock home run to seal the victory.
Then in the rubber match, the Dodgers jumped out to a five-run lead and hung on for a 7-6 win. Pederson homered twice in the game while Tatis also left the yard against Dodgers starter Ross Stripling, who is no longer with the team.
Kenley Jansen made things interesting by allowing two hits and a walk in the ninth to cut the lead to one run. With the tying run at third with one out, Manny Machado hit a fly ball to left, which was caught by Chris Taylor. He then came up firing to throw out Grisham to end the game and secure the win.
It’s worth noting that Mookie Betts missed this entire series for the Dodgers due to a middle finger injury on his left hand.
Aug. 10-13: Four-game split at Dodger Stadium
The two teams met again at Dodger Stadium a week later, splitting a four-game set. This time, the Padres also took the opener of the series.
Their bullpen outdueled May, who again was solid by allowing only two runs in six innings. Bellinger drove in L.A.’s only run with a first-inning single, and Eric Hosmer drove in the winning run with a base hit of his own in the sixth inning. Of the Dodgers’ four hits, none came after the fourth.
Stripling struggled for the Dodgers in the second game, as did the defense, resulting in a 6-2 loss. Machado had the big blow, a grand slam in the third inning after a pair of errors on bunts by the Dodgers that changed the entire inning.
L.A. bounced back in the third game of the series, shutting out the Padres, 6-0. Tony Gonsolin was brilliant for the Dodgers, striking out what was then a career-high eight batters in 4.2 scoreless innings.
Justin Turner broke the game open with a three-run homer in the eighth inning to put it out of reach for the Padres.
The Dodgers needed a win in the finale to earn a series split and were able to do so by slugging six home runs in an 11-2 victory. Julio Urias gave up a pair of homers to Tommy Pham and Hosmer in the first inning but settled in from there, getting through 6.1 innings with just the two runs allowed.
Corey Seager, Pollock and Austin Barnes all went deep for the Dodgers, while Betts stole the show by homering three times in his best game with the organization. Meanwhile, Paddack had one of his worst outings of the year by allowing six runs in three innings.
Sept. 14-16: Dodgers take two out of three at Petco Park
In what became a theme between these two teams, the Padres struck first with a 7-2 win in the opener of their final series against each other at Petco Park.
It was a pitcher’s duel between Clayton Kershaw and Dinelson Lamet for most of the night, although the Padres were able to break it open late.
Grisham made headlines in this one by hitting a game-tying home run off Kershaw in the sixth inning. He admired his shot and took a while to round the bases, which manager Dave Roberts and some Dodgers took exception with.
The Dodgers’ defense was poor in Kershaw’s seventh inning when Pedro Baez came in to put out the fire but was not able to due to errors, resulting in the loss. Lamet was great on the night, striking out 11 in seven strong innings.
The big win pulled the Padres within 1.5 games of the Dodgers in the NL West, but L.A. then responded with back-to-back victories to effectively end any hopes of San Diego winning the division.
Gonsolin got the ball in the second game of the series and once again was great, giving up four hits and one run in seven innings.
Zach Davies was also solid, allowing three runs in six innings, although that obviously wasn’t enough with how well the Dodgers’ pitching staff looked. The big blow of the night was a solo home run by Edwin Rios in the fifth inning.
Jansen made things interesting by loading the bases on two hits and a walk in the ninth before getting back-to-back strikeouts to shut the door.
The following afternoon, home runs by Pollock and Taylor helped the Dodgers jumped out to a 7-1 lead in the series finale. May also tossed five innings out of the bullpen, giving up three runs (one earned) with six strikeouts.
The Padres chipped away to cut their deficit to 7-5, but that was the closest they would get with the Dodgers taking the series at Petco Park, as well as the season series.
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