Los Angeles @ San Diego preview
PETCO Park
Last Meeting ( Feb 23, 2025 ) San Diego 3, LA Dodgers 8
The calendar says it's early June, but Padres third baseman Manny Machado swears time disappeared during San Diego's road trip.
"It's been a week of postseason baseball," he said Sunday after homering for the only run in a 1-0 win in Milwaukee that capped a 4-3 week away from home.
Machado and the Padres are back home to start a highly anticipated three-game series on Monday against their National League West archrivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in their first matchup of the season.
If those games are anything like those the Padres played in San Francisco and Milwaukee, their fans might not have any fingernails left. Every game but one during the trip -- San Diego's 2-0 triumph on Friday night -- was decided by one run.
In fact, 13 of San Diego's last 14 games have been decided by one or two runs. Playing tight games seems to be working for the Padres, who have won four of their last five series to stay within a game of Los Angeles.
"You talk about grinding," San Diego manager Mike Shildt said. "They got after it. Six one-run games, one two-run game. ... I couldn't be more pleased with this road trip overall and just the dedication to competition."
Pitching is the main reason the Padres won two of three in Milwaukee despite scoring just six runs. Their starting pitchers didn't permit a run in 15 2/3 innings, although none of the three earned a win.
San Diego will call on right-hander Nick Pivetta (6-2, 3.16 ERA) to keep the shutdown starting pitching on track. He's coming off a no-decision Wednesday in a 6-5 loss at San Francisco, working six-plus innings and yielding five runs off six hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
Pivetta, who's 5-0 in six home starts with a 1.69 ERA this season, is 1-2 with a 2.96 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings over six career outings (five starts) against the Dodgers.
Los Angeles will counter with hard-throwing right-hander Dustin May (3-4, 4.09), who last worked on June 2 in a 4-3 home loss in 10 innings to the New York Mets. May got a no-decision after allowing six hits, two runs and two walks in six innings while fanning five. He's 2-4 with a 3.36 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 59 innings over 12 career games (nine starts) against San Diego.
The Dodgers stayed atop the division by notching a 7-3 win Sunday in St. Louis to avoid a three-game sweep. Former Cardinal Tommy Edman knocked in three runs, while Clayton Kershaw picked up his first win of the season with five solid innings of one-run ball, whiffing seven.
The rivals faced off in the 2024 NL Division Series, won by Los Angeles in a decisive fifth game 2-0. They blanked the Padres over the series' last 24 innings after trailing 2-1 in the series, then posted a six-game NLCS win over the Mets and eliminated the Yankees in five games for the World Series title.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts isn't assigning extra value to this series.
"Outside of it just (being) a division opponent and us trying to find a way to win a game, it really doesn't have any extra impact," Roberts said. "Right now, we're not playing our best baseball, but I think that environment is going to bring out the best in us."
--Field Level Media