Padres Have A Big Series With The Dodgers

The Padres were up and down in the month of April. The offense wasn’t playing up to what it was capable of doing. The only player playing well on a consistent basis was Xander Bogaerts. Towards the end of the month, things got better and the Padres swept the Mexico City Series against the Giants and took two out of three against the Reds.

Now things shift to the Dodgers this weekend who are in first place in the NFL West. The Padres are only 2 games back in the division and currently hold the final wildcard spot.

Dodgers Vs. Padres This Weekend

The Dodgers/Padres rivalry is similar to the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry in the early 2000s before the Red Sox won the world series. The Padres are looking for their first World Series championship after signing big-name players to big contracts. The Dodgers who have also started slow to start the season have always been a nag to the Padres in recent years.

Joe Musgrove goes against Clayton Kershaw tomorrow. Musgrove who last pitched last Saturday in Mexico City had a shaky outing. Everytime a ball was hit the wind would carry the ball out of the ballpark. Kershaw is 5-1 this season but honestly, he’s not that clutch. The Padres should be able to hit Kershaw tomorrow. Musgrove should pitch better tomorrow at Petco Park.

Padres And Dodgers Have Good Pitching Matchups This Weekend

Yu Darvish is pitching Saturday and Blake Snell is pitching Sunday. Both Darvish and Snell didn’t get enough run support early on. In Darvish’s case, he didn’t pitch enough in the WBC which caused the delay to have him pitch in the beginning. Snell on the other hand couldn’t get out of his own way. He gave up a lot of hits and couldn’t get out of the fourth inning. Finally, things have calmed down for both Snell and Darvish. They both have gotten run support.

Juan Soto has finally woken up after a bad start to the season. He’s played better these last couple of weeks than he did during the better half of April.

The Padres are not and shouldn’t be a .500 baseball team. This weekend will be a great test to see what happens.  Joe Musgrove talked about the upcoming matchup with the Dodgers this weekend.

“Obviously we overcame that challenge last year but it’s a new year, new team. They’ve got some new guys over there who haven’t seen us, we’ve got guys who haven’t seen them,” says Padres starting pitcher Joe Musgrove. “There’s been a lot of talk about this series coming up about who’s the top dog in the division now but all of it’s talk. Friday’s the first day we get to get out there and see how the teams match up. “The crowd’s going to be a little more excited,” says Musgrove. “It’ll be a full house. As a player you try not to add much more intensity or much more pressure to the moment. I think you try to tap into it a little bit and use it to your advantage to get the adrenaline going, go out there and have a good performance.”

The Padres are also 8-4 since Tatis came back into the lineup after going 9-11 without him. Tatis adds an additional power hitter this team needs and fills their lineup.

“They’re a great baseball team. We’re a great baseball team,” says Tatis Jr. “We’re just going to play great baseball out there and see how it unfolds.”