Emmet Sheehan (4-5, 5.08) vs. JP Sears (1-1, 6.97).
Last night's victory put the Padres 15 games behind the Dodgers, in third place in the NL West (behind the Diamondbacks, who are 14 back). The Padres have lost eight in a row. And now they turn to a failed US retailer to save them.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (8-5, 2.67) vs. Griffin Canning (1-5, 7.09).
The Dodgers once again turned the tables on the Padres, seemingly cruising to victory only to see those ideas get vaporized in a flash. Friday, it was at the hand of Teoscar Hernandez, whose light-hitting exploits of late became moot when he hit the game-winning, back-breaking grand slam to turn the Padres 3-0 lead into a 4-3 deficit.. That score held up, and the Dodgers won again over San Diego.
The numbers seem to favor the Dodgers based on the starting pitcher matchup. But who the heck knows, it's baseball! All I know is, I'll be there at the Stadium (with SoSG Orel!) to watch the fireworks.
Shohei Ohtani (8-2, 1.58) vs. Michael King (5-7, 3.55)
In yesterday's game, Roki Sasaki was useless, giving up six runs in the first three innings. Fernando Tatis Jr. hit the first pitch of the game for a double, and light-hitting Manny Machado pounded a two-run home run. Then in the next inning, Jackson Merrill had a solo shot, and Jake Cronenworth had a three-run home run, to put the Dodgers down by six.
And then, the Dodgers clawed their way back into this game, tying the game and then taking the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, and scoring 12 unanswered runs before ceding a run in the ninth to end the game, a 12-7 victory.
It was quite a beatdown, and the sold-out crowd would have been more into the comeback victory had they not been so distracted by Monkey D. Luffy and his giveaway hats.
Tonight, Shohei Ohtani takes the mound, having been pushed back a couple of days in his start. He's rested. Let's go.
Roki Sasaki (3-5, 4.88) vs. Randy Vasquez (6-6, 4.44).
Less than one week ago, the Padres were eight games back of the Dodgers.. San Diego is now 12 games back of the Dodgers, starting a four-game series at the Stadium.
Not to mention, the Padres are actually in second place in the division! No other divisional lead in baseball is more than 5.5 games.
Let's make this a series to celebrate with fireworks!
Emmet Sheehan (3-5, 5.32) vs. Michael King (5-6, 3.33).
Michael King, like Randy Vasquez last night, was one of five players that came over from the Yankees when the Padres traded Juan Soto in 2023. Vasquez got lit up for 5 ER and 7 R last night in 3.1 IP. Let's greet King with the same sort of warmth and win this series!
Yoshinobo Yamamoto (7-5, 2.65) vs. Randy Vasquez (6-5, 4.17).
Even after winning last night's game, the Padres are eight games back of the Dodgers.
That is all.
Roki Sasaki (3-4, 4.76) vs. Walker Buehler (4-3, 3.96).
Former Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler takes the mound for the rival Padres, who are nine games back of the Dodgers in the NL West. And as bad as Buehler and his ridiculous mustache have been since leaving Los Angeles, he's still sporting a better record and ERA than our starter, Roki Sasaki.
Should be an interesting matchup tonight.
Are you not entertained?
Shohei Ohtani (3-2, 0.82) vs. Randy Vasquez (5-1, 2.68).
The Dodgers have a shot at maintaining their first-place division lead, if they could only win today's rubber match and take the series with the Padres. Shohei Ohtani will surely bring his stuff, but after experiencing a crushing 1-0 loss in the series opener, this game will come down to whether the Dodgers' bats will be feeling Randy (Vasquez, that is).
Vasquez has only given up 1 ER in his last two starts (11.0 IP, 10 H, 0 BBs and 9 Ks across those two outings), so this won't be easy. Let's see if these Dodgers can come of age.
Sheehan vs. Canning.
Call this what you may: we're back in second place in the NL West. We were shut out last night. This is a disaster.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (3-3, 3.60) vs. Michael King (3-2, 2.63).
47 games into this season, and the Dodgers haven't yet faced the team that looks to be our prime division rival in 2026, the San Diego Padres. Heading into tonight's opener with Yoshinobu Yamamoto should give us some confidence, but Michael King isn't a pushover. And I'm sure the Petco Park faithful will be ready to cheer on their team. Let's see how this boss battle goes.
Winning five out of seven from the division rival Giants, with them on the precipice of making the playoffs, sounds a heck of a lot better than what really happened on Sunday, another bullpen meltdown (this time by Blake Treinen), who gave up three runs in the top of the eighth inning to ruin the Dodgers' 1-0 lead and waste seven scoreless innings from Emmet Sheehan.
The Giants' playoff chances may be bleak, but so too appear to be the Dodgers' 2025 playoff chances when formerly steady hands like Treinen--or Tanner Scott, or Kirby Yates, or Michael Kopech, among others--have been hopeless here in late September. Or, in Tanner Scott's case, all year long.
Conventional baseball wisdom says that the Dodgers' overuse of the bullpen all year, a byproduct of the injury-ridden starting rotaation, is coming back to bite the team at the worst time. We've got six more games to see who has the potential to step up this postseason.
Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice, the National League Wild Card race has gotten hairy, as strange things are afoot at the Circle K. Cincinnati just siezed the third and final WC spot from the Mets (Reds hold the tiebreaker), and both the Mets and Reds are idle today (along with the Dodgers).
But the Padres, three games back of the Dodgers in the NL West, host the Brewers at 6.40p PT (MIL Freddy Peralta vs. SD Jake Pivetta), in a game that means a bit more for the Padres, however both teams are comfortable in their current postseason berth positions.
And the Giants host the Cardinals (STL Michael McGreevy vs. SF Justin Verlander) at 6.45p PT, with Verlander trying to keep the Giants relevant while he looks for his fourth win of the year (and 266th of his career).
Yamamoto vs. Pivetta.
Five hits, and two runs, across two games against a division rival. That is not going to get it done.
The Dodgers slipped back into second place with yesterday's 5-1 loss, and look to slip further if we drop today's game. We are looking up at the Padres now. What a train wreck.
Teoscar Hernandez is 0-for-7 with 5 Ks in this series, and playing defense like an old man out there in right field. He's hurt. But there's no time for sympathy.
Glasnow vs. Cortes.
Let's start with the worst-case scenario for today's game: Nestor Cortes gets his sweet revenge on Freddie Freeman and the Dodgers by pitching an excellent game tonight, shutting the Dodgers down and ushering the Padres back into sole possession of first place.
It's entirely plausible, especially with the always-fragile Tyler Glasnow on the mound as our starter, not to mention a high likelihood we will continue to trot Michael "Black Hole" Conforto out there hoping for a different outcome despite four and a half months of evidence to the contrary.
My god.
Blake Snell (3-1, 1.80) vs. Yu Darvish (2-3, 5.97).
Sounds familiar: home team comes into a three-game series one game behind in the standings, with a visiting rival squad that has something to prove. And though this worked out well for the Dodgers last weekend, the Dodgers' pathetic series split in Denver against the Rockies demonstrates that we are far from firing on all cylinders (not to mention, Teoscar Hernandez' defense in right field sometimes looks like he's up on cinder blocks in the driveway).
And don't get me started on why the hell Michael Conforto keeps playing (he is 0-for-his-last-13 and sports a .186 batting average and .612 OPS this year, with 63 hits on the year and 93 Ks). We keep trotting out lineups like this, and we're expecting to lose.
Tyler Glasnow vs. Yu Darvish.
We actually have a chance to sweep the Padres? No way I thought that was possible. Clearly, we're working in an alternate universe here.
Blake Snell vs. Dylan Cease.
We're tied up in the NL West, after yesterday's white-knuckle 3-2 win over the Padres. Clayton Kershaw was gutty...something I haven't seen much of with Blake Snell, especially if he lasts into a third time through the lineup. Can Snell (or Snell-glazer David Vassegh) shut me up?
Clayton Kershaw vs. some Padre who will undoubtedly have the game of his life.
The Dodgers are now in second place, looking up at the Padres, thanks to a woeful run since the All-Star Break juxtaposed with a peaking San Diego team (8-2 over their last ten). With our loss Wednesday, yet another game in which we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and got season-swept by the lowly Angels, the Dodgers look completely hopeless in the bullpen and mostly impotent from the plate.
Reinforcements aren't coming in these last ~40 games. Either we step up, or we're done.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (6-5, 2.64) vs. Ryan Bergert (1-0, 2.33).
Normally I'd feel pretty good about Yoshi starting in the final game of a four-game series, with the Dodgers poised for a sweep. But given the breaks have fallen our way with two straight bullpen-game victories, not to mention Yamamoto's last seven starts (2-3 with a 4.46 ERA) have been mortal, I'm not so sure.
And some people say I'm too negative.
Emmet Sheehan vs. Stephen Kolek (3-2, 3.50).
I didn't expect to win yesterday's bullpen game against the Padres, but we did (8-6), thanks to our bats. At the center of this was Will Smith, who slapped his way through a long 12-pitch AB against Jeremiah Estrada, culminating in a two-run HR that put the Dodgers up 5-3 and opening up the floodgates in that five-run frame.
But it's not like we didn't know how to win a bullpen game against the Padres, right?
So tonight, we run back what is basically another bullpen game, starting fresh call-up Emmet Sheehan (4-1, 4.92 ERA over his career). Let's see how this goes!
TBD vs. Randy Vasquez (3-4, 3.57).
Dylan Cease was mowing us down in the first two innings: five straight swinging Ks, followed by a Max Muncy weak tapper to the mound. But then the fourth inning came around, and seven of eight consecutive Dodgers reached base, and suddenly the Dodgers were up 6-2 on the Padres. Cease ended up lasting only five innings, and although the Dodgers used seven pitchers to secure the victory (the day before another spot-start and/or bullpen game), it seemed like a pretty big win in the opener of this four-game series.
Oh yeah, and that Ohtani guy pitched as well. He gave up a run and lasted only one inning, so his ERA is 9.00.
I hope that guy makes it in the bigs.
Anyway, today is game #2 and who knows what we'll see on the mound, so I hope the Dodgers are ready to (yet again) bat their way out of trouble.
