The Los Angeles Dodgers are in the midst of playing 29 consecutive games against playoff-caliber opponents, but this week offers their first look at the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.
The quirk is somewhat of a byproduct of MLB’s balanced schedule that also brought about the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs finishing their season series by late April.
Matchups between the Dodgers and Padres have taken on added significance and excitement over recent years, and there of course is a longstanding rivalry with the Giants. There figures to be added emotion at Petco Park given last year’s NL Division Series that both sides believed determined the World Series winner.
With their next 10 games against San Diego or San Francisco, Tommy Edman said L.A. is looking forward to the stretch, per Kevin Baxter of the L.A. Times:
“We’re excited to play them,” said Edman, who had his first multi-hit game in June, driving in three runs. “It’s kind of weird that we’ve gotten to this point without playing them or the Giants. We’ve got a lot of lot of games against those guys coming up. So we’re excited to get at it.”
Entering Monday, the Dodgers are in first place in the National League West, one game ahead of both the Padres and Giants. The Dodgers and Padres were both victorious on Sunday after suffering a loss the day prior, while the Giants are riding a five-game winning streak.
For Edman on a personal level, the road trip began with a return to Busch Stadium for the first time since he was traded last season. The St. Louis Cardinals played spoiler over the weekend by winning the first two games before Edman and the Dodgers could break out of their run-scoring woes.
Dodgers downplaying Padres series
When discussing this week’s series against the Padres, manager Dave Roberts explained the Dodgers are not putting added significance on the games at Petco Park.
Given some of the team’s uneven performance for multiple weeks, Roberts said the Dodgers’ focus remains on playing quality baseball regardless of the opponent.
Thus far the Dodgers are 10-9 in the most difficult portion of their schedule.
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