San Diego – Padres left Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday and licked his wounds on weekends. They were two games behind in the National League Western Conference – two fierce rivals played another series between two fierce rivals this weekend.
During this time, the Dodgers will head to Colorado to play against the last Rockies. If the priests can only keep pace, they see it as victory. Instead, they took advantage of several Dodgers' stumbling by winning a series of wins by the Giants on Thursday afternoon at Petco Park.
Now, there is only one game that brings Padres and the Dodgers to the final regular season meeting of the season.
“Listen, we're excited, we're human,” said manager Mike Shildt. “We realized we didn’t have the perfect best footsteps. We were good at competing, just couldn’t grasp the aspect.
“Ultimately, it's about executing and playing the game. It's really exciting and can't wait to think about tomorrow night. I hope tonight is.”
Padres' new look offense continued to pound on Thursday, beating eight times after scoring seven points on Wednesday. Indeed, the whole week marked an impressive response from a San Diego team that stumbled upon over the weekend.
“We did a really, really good job this year, and every game is our own, whether we win or lose the night before,” Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth said.
In short, that's how Padres bounced from the deficit in the NL West in nine games on July 3 until they brought the division's lead to Los Angeles last week. Then, after being swept, they took three of four from the Giants this week, while the Dodgers threw two games to the Rockies.
“The game is hard, the game is challenging, the ball doesn't bounce,” said Hilt. “What I appreciate about this team is that we will work together and we will compete consistently.”
On Thursday, Fernando Tatis Jr. Padres quickly trailed 2-0, with an atypical defensive defense behind in the third inning. They finished two in fourth and scored six in fifth. Machado's two-round doubles were a big blow.
Meanwhile, starter Dylan Cease allowed four runs in more than five games – although his line didn't say the poor defense in the third inning, which directly led to two of them. From there, Padres's bullpen nailed it.
This proves the depth of the bullpen that Shildt might be so aggressive. Even with a four-game winning streak, he went to four high-leverage arms. But the weapons have been largely rested lately – All-Star man Jason Adam was not used on Thursday.
Padres have the ability to show aggressiveness with the bullpen’s high leverage weapon because of their abundant arms. Jeremiah Estrada, Adrian Morejon, Mason Miller and Robert Suarez combined four innings on Thursday. It marks the 28th time San Diego has earned at least four innings without divisions from its “pen”.
“In a sense, it helps us have a deep bullpen,” said Hilt. “…but the offense can determine the game and control the game, which cheers us up.”
As many things as possible, Padres won San Francisco this week to show that everything should work. They play clean (sometimes glittering) defensive baseball. Their starters did enough. Their offense gave them a lead and then got caught. Their bullpen locked it.
So… can the priest bring this recipe to the weekend? They did this inning against the Giants all season, winning 10 of 13 games in between. But they have been struggling with their fight with Los Angeles, down 10 overall (losing head-to-head decisive games in the process).
“We didn’t play the best baseball,” Gavin Bedsheet said of last weekend’s series defeat. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s the Dodgers or anyone else.
in particular. Padres has 34 games to control his destiny in NL West games. The next three games are the last time they can get a stance directly on their biggest competitors.