Padres vs. Dodgers: Not a rivalry quite yet

The San Diego Padres have lost two games so far in a three-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Padres will play the last game of the series on Sunday night in an attempt to avoid the sweep. Despite the buzz and the hype surrounding the Padres after a few big acquisitions before the trade deadline, the Padres have been unable to support that buzz and hype with their production. Since the new hitters came into town, the Padres have gone 1-3. The Padres won the first game and lost the next three games.

In the first game of the away series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, the Padres struggled mightily early on. Starting pitcher Sean Manaea gave up eight runs in the first three innings. He gave up four runs in the first inning, and then he had a solid second inning. 

Manaea seemed to have recovered from a rough first inning. Unfortunately, he gave up four runs in the third inning as well. He did not pitch for much longer after that, and he was pulled after pitching in four innings. Although he struggled in this outing, he had seven strikeouts in those four innings.

The bullpen was solid in relief of Manaea.

The relief pitchers only gave up two hits and a walk throughout the rest of the game. However, the Padres offense was unable to score many runs to catch up to the Dodgers. The only Padres run of the night came from a sacrifice fly by third baseman Brandon Drury. 

Although Drury had an RBI and a walk in this game, he also had a throwing error. This led many Padres fans to question why usual third baseman Manny Machado was not playing at third base instead of Drury. The Padres only had four total hits in the game, while the Dodgers had 12. The Padres lost this game with a score of 8-1.

The second game of the series was more of the same for the Padres. The Padres did have a 3-2 lead going into the fifth inning after scoring three runs in the fourth inning. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. Starting pitcher Mike Clevinger had a rough fifth inning, as he gave up three runs. Clevinger was unable to complete the fifth inning, and he finished with four ⅔ innings pitched. He gave up five total runs on seven hits and a walk.

The Padres’ offense was better in this game than in the previous game.

Drury, center fielder Wil Myers and second baseman Jake Cronenworth each had an RBI in this game. Unfortunately, three runs were not enough to catch up to the eight runs scored by the Dodgers. The Padres lost this game with a score of 8-3.

In the third and final game of the series, the Padres will have Yu Darvish start the game on the mound to face the Dodgers. Darvish has a record of 10-4 on the season and will look to get his 11th win. The Dodgers will have Ty Anderson start the game, and he will look to improve on his 12-1 record. 

The Padres have a 61-49 record, still second in both the National League and the NL Wild Card race. The Padres are 14.5 games behind the Dodgers, and it seems highly unlikely that the Padres will get close to threatening the Dodgers for first.