Game: San Diego Padres @ Los Angeles Dodgers
Time: 9:37 p.m. ET
Odds: Padres +200, Dodgers -220
Total: 7
The Los Angeles Dodgers prepared for their most recent postseason trip with one of the best regular seasons in baseball history. As a result, they will get a familiar opponent in the NLDS. In Game 1 of the National League Division Series tonight, they will face the San Diego Padres. It will be the tenth straight postseason appearance for the Dodgers. In the wild-card round, the Padres turned in one of the all-time great playoff performances and beat the 101-win New York Mets in two games.
The Dodgers became just the seventh team in baseball history to win as many as 110 games, and they established a franchise record with 111 victories during the regular season. Five of the previous six clubs to do it made it to the World Series, and three of them won it all. The 2001 Seattle Mariners were the most recent team to do it. They won 116 games but lost to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.
The Dodgers have advanced to the NLCS in five of the previous six seasons and the World Series in three of the last five, so they are well aware that anything less than a strong playoff run will be viewed as a letdown. The team also had the highest OPS (.775), most runs scored (847), and lowest ERA in all of baseball (2.80).
After deciding between Julio Urias and Clayton Kershaw as his Game 1 starter, Roberts decided that Urias (17-7, 2.16 ERA) would start the first game of the series. In four starts against the Padres this year, Urias dominated, finishing 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA in 24 innings. Urias made three of those starts in September, going 2-0 with a 1.42 ERA. Urias has a 6-1 record and a 2.19 ERA in 15 career appearances (10 starts) against San Diego.
The Padres won only three of the 12 games against the Dodgers after the addition of Juan Soto, Josh Bell, and Josh Hader. The Padres only had a 32-27 record since the beginning of August, but they managed to defeat the Mets by allowing a combined one run in their two wild-card round victories behind Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove.
The Padres will have to start Mike Clevinger (7-7, 4.33) in the NLDS opening game tonight. He is their most inexperienced pitcher. In three starts this year against the Dodgers, the right-hander went 0-2 with a 9.69 ERA in 13 innings.
Trent Grisham will continue to start for the Padres, even against the Dodgers’ two left-handed starters to open the NLDS. Grisham went 4-for-8 with two home runs, two walks, three RBIs, and five runs in the wild-card series.
This will be just the second postseason meeting between the Dodgers and Padres. Los Angeles swept San Diego 3-0 in the 2020 NLDS. The Padres are just 2-14 SU in their last 16 games against the Dodgers on the road.
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