DodgerHeads: Previewing Dodgers’ NLDS Matchup Against Padres

The Los Angeles Dodgers took care of business in the Wild Card round, sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers to earn a trip to the National League Division Series, where they will take on the division-rival San Diego Padres.

Major League Baseball’s postseason schedule is an unusual one this year as the Dodgers and Padres don’t open up their series until Tuesday. Both teams traveled to Texas to get situated in the meantime.

DodgerBlue.com’s Jeff Spiegel and Daniel Starkand recorded an episode of “DodgerHeads” to recap the Wild Card Series and looking ahead to the NLDS.

The discussion started with the series against the Brewers, where the Dodgers’ pitching staff looking dominant and the lineup came up with timely hits to complete the sweep. The star of the series unquestionably was Clayton Kershaw, who tossed eight shutout innings in Game 2, striking out a postseason-high 13 batters.

Meanwhile at Petco Park, the Padres required all three games to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals and move on. Their pitching staff was taxed in the series, but they could be getting some reinforcements for the NLDS in the form of their two best starts – Dinelson Lamet and Mike Clevinger.

The Dodgers and Padres are two teams that are very familiar with each other after meeting 10 times in the regular season with L.A. winning six of those. Most of the games were competitive, which should make for a tough series.

Dodgers’ roster and rotation

A big topic of discussion on this episode of “DodgerHeads” was what changes the Dodgers should make to their roster as well as what their NLDS rotation should look like.

There’s no doubt Walker Buehler and Kershaw will start the first two games in some order, leaving Julio Urias, Dustin May and Tony Gonsolin for the other three games.

To close out the show, Spiegel and Starkand then made their predictions for the series.

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