The Los Angeles Dodgers host the San Diego Padres for the first time this season in arguably their most important series yet as the two teams have been near each other at the top of the National League West standings all year.
The teams previously met at Petco Park in April when the Dodgers took two of the three games. Now, L.A. enters the series at 46-28, 1.5 games ahead of the 46-31 Padres in the division.
Although there is still a lot of baseball left to be played, each series against the Padres could end up determining who wins the NL West at the end of the season, so the Dodgers know how important the matchups are.
With that in mind, manager Dave Roberts hopes the Dodgers will play their best baseball of the season during the four-game series at Dodger Stadium, via SportsNet LA:
“You want to win them all. I don’t know where we are in the standings, I know we’re leading. They’re going to come with some energy, as we’ve seen. We’ve got to match it and play good baseball. Either way, we still have a lot of baseball to play. But certainly, we want to play our best baseball this series.”
Over the past few seasons the Dodgers and Padres have become a rivalry that brings out the competitive nature of each team. Last season after L.A. was swept by San Diego, Justin Turner said the team was already looking forward to their next matchup.
It has become must-watch baseball when the Dodgers and Padres meet, and the fans seem to agree.
The Padres set record attendance numbers the last time the two clubs faced off, with the series finale drawing an announced attendance of 44,930, which was the largest crowd of the weekend at Petco Park.
The 133,856 total attendance represented the highest in Petco Park history for a three-game series. It bested the 133,456 announced attendance from May 3-5, 2019, which also was for a three-game series the Dodgers were part of.
Dodgers content with road trip but hoped for better
The Dodgers started their road trip by sweeping the Cincinnati Reds behind performances from their lineup that prompted Roberts to declare it was the best series the offense has had this season.
Some of that momentum stalled against the Atlanta Braves, but the Dodgers still won two of three games at Truist Park. But then came more struggles at Coors Field, where the Dodgers needed a win Wednesday to avoid being swept by the lowly Colorado Rockies.
L.A. bounced back from consecutive losses to defeat the Rockies, but Gavin Lux acknowledged the Dodgers didn’t put their best foot forward in the first two games against the Rockies. He still considers a 6-3 record on the road trip a success, however, and Roberts echoed much of Lux’s sentiment.
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