Dodgers-Padres hot October rivalry
by Mark Langill
After living in a blue shadow for over a half-century, the San Diego Padres finally delivered a knockout punch still ringing in the ears of Dodger fans, who watched their super team crumble in the 2022 National League Division Series.
Riding high following a franchise-record 111 wins during the regular season, the Dodgers lost in four games against San Diego. They squandered a 3–0 lead in Game 4 at Petco Park and watched San Diego erupt for five runs in the seventh inning off three relievers for a 5–3 victory.
This is the third time in five years the Dodgers and Padres will meet in the Division Series, but only the second attended by fans. A three-game sweep by the Dodgers in 2020 was played in front of cardboard cutouts in the stands at an otherwise empty Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, during the pandemic.
This is the first time the Dodgers have faced an opponent three times in five years since Los Angeles met the New York Yankees in three World Series between 1977 and 1981.
Another rematch with the Padres in the 2024 postseason offers similar storylines. The Dodgers are NL West champions and have the home-field advantage in the best-of-five series that begins Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
The biggest difference is history.
While the Dodgers every spring proclaim, “World Series or bust,” the Padres are one of five Major League teams that have never won a World Series. The others are the Mariners, Brewers, Rays and Rockies. The Dodgers have seven World Series titles, the last in 2020.
This is the Dodgers’ first true extended rivalry with the Padres since their inaugural season in 1969, which was also the start of divisional play. When former Dodger general manager Buzzie Bavasi became San Diego’s first team president, he filled the field and front office with familiar Dodger faces, including manager Preston Gomez and coaches Wally Moon and Johnny Podres.
During the 1970s, the Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds won nine of the 10 division titles (San Francisco winning 1971 by one game over the Dodgers). The Padres didn’t have a winning record until 1978. They finished ahead of the Dodgers for the first time in 1984, San Diego’s first pennant-winning season in which the Padres overcame an 0–2 deficit against the Chicago Cubs in the NL Championship Series.
San Diego lost the 1984 World Series in five games against Kirk Gibson and the Detroit Tigers. San Diego won its second NL pennant in 1998 and was swept by the Yankees in the World Series.
LA’s current streak of 12 consecutive playoff appearances, which included 11 division titles, ranks third in Major League history behind the Braves (14; 1991–93, 1997–2005) and Yankees (13; 1995–2007).
But fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers could relate to their San Diego counterparts. Between 1916 and 1953, the Dodgers were 0–7 in the World Series, not counting regular-season playoff losses to the Cardinals in 1946 and the Giants in 1951. Brooklyn finally won the World Series in 1955, defeating the Yankees in seven games.
Two cornerstones of the San Diego offense have Dodger connections. Third baseman Manny Machado spent 66 games with Los Angeles in 2018 after a trade with the Baltimore Orioles on July 18. He made his only World Series appearance in a Dodger uniform against the Boston Red Sox. He batted .182 (4-for-22) in five games with three RBI.
Right fielder Fernando Tatis is one of five players to hit a home run over the pavilion roof at Dodger Stadium, a 467-foot blast off right-hander Tony Gonsolin on Sept. 30, 2021. His father, Fernando Tatis, set a Major League record at Dodger Stadium with two grand slams in one inning with the St. Louis Cardinals against right-hander Chan Ho Park on April 23, 1999.
This season, the Padres are wearing “PS” patches in memory of former Peter Seidler, who passed away at age 63 on Nov. 24, 2023. He once described the Dodgers as “the blue dragon up the freeway we’re trying to slay.”
At least Seidler was familiar with the dragon’s family. Seidler’s grandfather was Walter O’Malley, the Dodger team president and chairman of the board from 1950 to 1979 who designed and funded the construction of Dodger Stadium.
With “Beat L.A.” chants starting at Petco Park after San Diego swept the Braves in the Wild Card series, the Padres are looking up the freeway and ready for another fight.
Will the dragon answer the bell in 2024?
Dodgers-Padres now October rivalry was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.