Surging Padres proceed to chip away at Dodgers’ lead in NL West
The Dodgers’ gallop of seven straight NL West titles is hereby in wretchedness. The Padres on Monday night defeated the Dodgers within the sequence opener at Petco Park (SD 7, LAD 2) and in doing so trimmed L.A.’s lead within the division to 1 1/2 games. The Padres accept as true with now obtained eight in a row and are 10-2 for the month of September. The Dodgers, intervening time, are 7-5 this month. Mere days within the past, the Dodgers had a six-game lead within the division.
In Monday night’s game, San Diego true-hander Dinelson Lamet used to be dominant opposite Clayton Kershaw:
Lamet turned into the first pitcher to memoir 10 or more strikeouts in opposition to the Dodgers this season. With the bother, the 27-yr-susceptible diminished his 2020 ERA to 2.12.
On the offensive aspect of things, Padres No. 9 hitter Trent Grisham hit his ninth home bustle of the season, and tempers appeared to flare as he handed the consumer’s dugout alongside the third-heinous line:
After the game, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts took exception to Grisham’s celebration at the expense of an brisk story akin to Kershaw:
Per chance that items the scene for the final two games of this sequence — and the final two Dodgers-Padres encounters of the in vogue season — on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Circling lend a hand to Monday’s opener, the Padres broke it open within the seventh, thanks in portion to a pair of Max Muncy fielding miscues:
Lefty Drew Pomeranz worked a scoreless eighth for the Padres, and he composed has yet to permit a bustle in 16 innings this season.
The Padres on Sunday clinched their first profitable season since 2010. They haven’t made the playoffs or obtained the division since 2006. That playoff berth is a particular component — the SportsLine Projection Model (@SportsLine on Twitter) offers San Diego a 100 p.c likelihood of developing the postseason — and the division title is plan more doable than it appeared even a pair of days within the past. Factual now the entirety’s creating Padres, but the Dodgers composed accept as true with the lead and most recent historical previous in their favor.
On this date a yr within the past, the Dodgers had been 19 1/2 games in first attach, and the Padres had been 27 games inside of and out fourth attach. Whereas profitable the division would not mean as considerable ensuing from of the one-off building of the 2020 postseason, overtaking the rival Dodgers might perchance presumably perchance be a mountainous coup for the Padres and their thrilling young core. Such an is now very considerable in play.