The Los Angeles Dodgers are sitting behind the division rival San Diego Padres in the standings as a second-half freefall suddenly raises new questions about their ability to capture a top playoff spot.
After leading the division all season, the Dodgers are going into a series with the Padres needing to make up ground. If their fall continues, they could find themselves without a critical first-round bye or home field advantage for the postseason.
And, as if the stakes for the rivalry series weren’t already high enough, the Padres’ latest star addition underscored his new club’s disdain for the Dodgers in some public comments.
“They told me right away, ‘Obviously, we don’t like those guys a whole lot,'” Padres reliever Mason Miller said on the “Foul Territory” podcast, after joining the team via a deadline trade deal with the Athletics. “I haven’t really had a rivalry to that extent. … Not a rivalry to the sense of, the Padres and the Dodgers.”
The Dodgers are well aware that the Padres don’t really like them, given their World Series credentials and the back-and-forth jawing that has been a feature of their recent matchups.
When told about Miller’s comments, Dodgers veteran Clayton Kershaw dismissed any hard feelings with a two-word message.
“That’s fine,” Kershaw said, according to Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register.
“I don’t feel any one way about them. I just want to win the division.”
In recent seasons, the Padres have been a little more outspoken about their specific disdain for the Dodgers, while Dodgers players and manager Dave Roberts tend to suggest the rivalry isn’t as meaningful to them. Kershaw explained that outlook by noting that his team has had several different regional rivals over the years while generally maintaining a top spot in the division.
“In the whole time I’ve been here, it’s gone from the (San Francisco) Giants to the (Colorado) Rockies to the (Arizona) Diamondbacks to the Padres to the Giants again,” Kershaw added, per Plunkett. “So … I think the one constant is we’re always in it. It’s just kind of the next-best team changes. Right now, it’s them.”
Kershaw might feel like the “next-best” team in the National League West is always changing, but the standings say that the Padres now hold the top spot and the second best has suddenly become the Dodgers.
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