Dodgers roll halted by Padres, raising new concern…
Entering this week, the Dodgers appeared to be rolling toward the postseason.
They had gained 14 of 17 video games. They had clinched the National League West division crown. They separated themselves for a top-two NL seed. And that they had finally gotten the whole thing of their roster –– from a beforehand slumping offense to a once-scuffling bullpen to a star-studded rotation –– synced up and enjoying effectively at the same time.
There was, of course, one caveat to all that success.
The workforce had gotten an exceedingly gentle late-season schedule, having not confronted a fellow contender in virtually a month.
Teoscar Hernandez tosses his bat after hanging out during the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ 4-2 loss to the Padres on Sept. 25, 2026 in Los Angeles. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Thus, this week’s go to of the San Diego Padres felt like one thing of a pre-October check, if not a preview of a potential postseason matchup.
And with a 4-2 rubber-match loss on Thursday evening at Chavez Ravine, it was one they concerningly failed in their last true tune-up before the playoffs.
The Dodgers, of course, will downplay the importance of this week’s outcomes. They gained 7-0 with a bullpen sport on Tuesday evening. They felt Wednesday’s 5-1 defeat was nearer than the ultimate rating mirrored. In the big-picture, Thursday’s setback didn’t harm them either –– particularly after they clinched a first-round playoff bye pregame thanks to the Atlanta Braves’ loss to the Cincinnati Reds.
There was also a matter of motivation, with the Padres clinching their own postseason spot by profitable each of the last two video games.
Nevertheless, dropping this collection continued an more and more troublesome pattern for the two-time defending champions.
On the season, the Dodgers are just 25-28 against above-.500 groups presently on monitor to make the playoffs this yr (excluding the sub-.500 Astros and Rangers, who are presently tied atop the AL West).
In the last two months, that mark contains an eye-popping 2-14 rut in such matchups.
Over that period, there have been collection sweeps at the arms of the Red Sox, Cubs and Braves. There was just a lone win in a dispiriting four-game collection with the Milwaukee Brewers.
San Diego’s Jackson Merrill (proper) claps after scoring on a single by Austin Hays during the seventh inning of the Dodgers’ loss to the Padres. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
And still, no end result felt more foreboding than this one.
After a four-run rally in the underside of the second on Tuesday, the Dodgers’ once-resurgent lineup scored just six more occasions over its next 25 innings –– even with Shohei Ohtani returning from the injured checklist on Wednesday, and recording a multi-hit effort Thursday that included a comfort RBI double in the ninth.
Though they manufactured lots of visitors and prevented each of San Diego’s starters from finishing even 5 innings, they wasted numerous alternatives by going 4-for-25 with runners in scoring place.
It didn’t matter that the workforce acquired a pair of high quality, though hardly dominant, begins out of Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Wednesday (six innings, two earned runs –– albeit with two more unearned) and Tyler Glasnow on Thursday (6.1 innings, three earned runs –– the last of which scored after he left the sport).
Tyler Glasnow adjusts his cap after ending the fifth inning of the Dodgers’ loss to the Padres. AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill
Or that their own bullpen was, by and large, wonderful; only finished in during a three-run seventh-inning rally from the Padres on Thursday that was aided by some shoddy Dodgers protection (another space where the workforce all of a sudden regressed against a larger stage of opponent).
Instead, their red-hot offense reverted back to its mediocre mid-summer type.
And now, after a number of weeks of more and more auspicious type, the Dodgers have renewed questions to reply about their incapability to beat other playoff-bound groups.
If it doesn’t change soon, it might portend an unexpectedly short October.
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