This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
At long last, it’s Dodgers week. The Padres welcome their rivals to town for three games at Petco Park, beginning tonight.
It’s a crucial series in the National League West, featuring its usual share of major storylines. Here’s a look at six of those storylines, as the rivalry renews:
1. October rematch
In the aftermath of the Padres’ Division Series exit last October, the hurt resonated so deeply, largely because the Padres believed they could win the World Series. Sure enough, the Dodgers mostly cruised past the Mets and Yankees, and after winning the title, manager Dave Roberts agreed, saying of the NLDS: “I felt, from my perspective, that was the World Series.”
There’s no need to rehash the ending. The Padres looked like they were on the verge of advancing, before their bats went ice cold over the final 24 innings. There were questions about how the Padres would recover this year, following a brutal exit and a quiet offseason. But they seemed hellbent on using that elimination as fuel.
“You want to make sure that it stings -- and the sting is there,” manager Mike Shildt said just before the season began. “But you don't want it to consume you. … We had a lot of really, really good things happen individually and collectively that we need to hold onto and believe and understand that's who we are. And we know, yeah, we've got unfinished business.”
2. Lingering hostilities?
That NLDS had it all -- including a spat between Roberts and Manny Machado that seems almost silly in hindsight. (To be clear, it seemed silly at the time as well, but in the heat of the playoffs, it was -- perhaps naturally -- blown out of proportion.)
In the middle of Game 2, after Machado and Dodgers starter Jack Flaherty barked at each other, Machado flung a baseball toward the Dodgers dugout in the direction of Roberts. The level of malice and the intent behind the throw? Disagreed on by all parties.
It was Roberts who brought it to the forefront the next day, calling the throw “unsettling.” Shildt shooed away those assertions. Machado didn’t even want to address it. After the postseason, when the tensions had settled, Roberts would acknowledge using the incident as a “diversion.”
“The past is the past,” Machado said when asked about the incident in Spring Training. “I’m looking forward to going out there and competing this year and trying to take them down.”
We’ll find out soon enough if the past, truly, is in the past.
3. Time for a Tatis/Merrill breakout
Fernando Tatis Jr. has shined brightest in games against the Dodgers. Jackson Merrill has only spent one season of games against them -- but he mashed, too. Both outfielders clearly love the spotlight this rivalry provides.
And maybe that’s what they need right now.
Tatis and Merrill currently find themselves mired in a pair of dreadful slumps. Tatis’ has lasted more than a month, as his OPS has dipped more than 200 points since the start of May. Merrill, meanwhile, is in the midst of the first prolonged rough patch of his career.
There’d be no better time for the duo to break out.
4. Welcome to the rivalry, Nick Pivetta
The Padres missed out on the most sought-after arm in free agency, when Roki Sasaki signed with the Dodgers. Sasaki has been out since May with a shoulder impingement; the Padres must wait for their first look at him.
But despite missing out, they landed one of the most effective free-agent starters on the market anyway -- and they’ll pitch him in Game 1 tonight.
Pivetta’s emergence is something the Padres envisioned the moment they signed him. But he’s perhaps been better than they could’ve hoped, posting a 3.16 ERA and a 3.05 FIP through 12 starts. His toughest test comes tonight.
5. Can Cease get on track?
The last time Dylan Cease faced the Dodgers, he was pitching on three days' rest for the first time in his career. It did not go well. Cease was lifted after just 10 hitters and was charged with three earned runs, as the Padres dropped NLDS Game 4 at home.
Cease has not managed to reassert his past dominance this season, though he’s showed signs at times. He’s posted a 4.72 ERA through 13 starts. With Michael King and Yu Darvish on the IL, the Padres need Cease pitching like an ace -- and with consecutive starts lined up against the Dodgers, now would be as good a time as ever.
6. NL West stakes
Ahh, yes, the actual tangible important part. The Padres trail the Dodgers by a game in the NL West. They’ll play seven times in the next 10 games. In the interim? The Padres play three against Arizona while the Dodgers play three against San Francisco.
It’s a crucial 10-game stretch in the context of the division race and the playoff picture as a whole. And it begins tonight.
“This whole week has been prepping us for the series,” Machado said after the Padres' 4-3 trip through San Francisco and Milwaukee. “San Fran was a hell of a series. We came here, and it was even tougher than that. Every series has been getting tougher and tougher. We know who we are going to run up against. We definitely got ready for it this week.”