The Los Angeles Dodgers are the National League’s No. 1 seed in the MLB playoffs after posting baseball’s best record during the regular season. The San Diego Padres won more games than any NL team not named the Dodgers to finish second in the West and secure the No. 4 seed.
L.A. made short work of Milwaukee in the wild-card series, and San Diego needed three games to send St. Louis packing. Now, the division rivals meet in a best-of-five with a trip to the NLCS on the line. Here’s how both teams got here, keys to the series and more.
Why this NLDS is worth the hype
The Dodgers, who’ve reached two of the past three World Series without a ring to show for it, are stacked. Mookie Betts, whose No. 50 jersey was MLB’s No. 1 seller this season, led an offense that hit more home runs and scored more runs than any team in the bigs. Clayton Kershaw anchored a pitching staff that led the majors in ERA — and it wasn’t even close. That kind of domination in both facets of the game make them the team to beat this October.
The underdog Padres? They’ll send to the field the most dynamic player in baseball, the game’s next transcendent superstar: 21-year-old shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. You’ve probably heard that name before. Tatis can take over a game and do it in style, but he has help, particularly on the left side of the infield in slugging third baseman Manny Machado, who played in the 2018 Fall Classic with the Dodgers.
The Padres’ pitching staff is banged up — more on that in a bit — but if L.A. is destined to win another pennant, San Diego has the talent to make the Dodgers earn it. This could be a very fun series to watch.
Numbers to know
Series odds: The Dodgers have a 62.9% chance of winning the series. (Odds from ESPN’s Bradford Doolittle)
Season series: Los Angeles won 6-4.
Series schedule
Game 1: Tuesday, Oct. 6, FS1 or MLBN
Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 7, FS1 or MLBN
Game 3: Thursday, Oct. 8, FS1 or MLBN
Game 4: Friday, Oct. 9, FS1 or MLBN (if necessary)
Game 5: Saturday, Oct. 10, FS1 or MLBN (if necessary)
How they got here
Padres: San Diego won the second-most games in the National League (37) to finish six back of the Dodgers in the West. Tatis, Machado and Wil Myers combined for 48 regular-season home runs, then hit five more combined in a series-shifting Game 2 comeback against St. Louis en route to this NLDS.
Wild Card Series: The Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1.
Dodgers: Once L.A. acquired Betts from the Boston Red Sox in February, the Dodgers became the odds-on World Series favorite. They did not disappoint, racing to a 43-17 record and posting a plus-136 run differential, both by far the best in baseball.
Wild Card Series: The Dodgers swept the Milwaukee Brewers 2-0.
Keys to the series for the Padres
1. The health of Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet
Beating the Cardinals in three games without your two best starting pitchers is one thing, but beating the Dodgers in five games without them is an enormously more difficult task. Clevinger, whom the Padres paid a hefty price for to acquire him from Cleveland at the trade deadline, is the least likely to be added to the division series roster, based on reports earlier this week when he did not respond well to a bullpen session Tuesday. Clevinger tossed a seven-inning shutout against the Giants on Sept. 13 but has pitched only one inning since then, against the Angels on Sept. 23, leaving that game because of an elbow strain.
Lamet left his final regular-season start on Sept. 25 in the fourth inning because of discomfort in his biceps. He also threw earlier this week. Lamet, who missed the 2018 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, had a breakout 60-game season, with a 2.09 ERA over 12 starts and…
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