The Dodgers spent the weekend doing more than padding their lead in the National League West. They put the Padres in a spot that looked uncomfortable from the first pitch and only got worse from there, taking three of four at Dodger Stadium and leaving San Diego looking like a team that had been hit squarely in the mouth.
That kind of series lands differently when the standings already tell a harsh story. Los Angeles is 60-32 and cruising away from the division.
San Diego sits at 44-46 and has dropped to third, a long way from where a club with that payroll and those expectations is supposed to be. The Giants still carry the most weight as a rivalry in the building, but the distance between the Dodgers and Padres keeps stretching.
The clearest sign of how one-sided this weekend became showed up in the third game. Mason Miller, the Padres’ prized closer, finally got his chance against Los Angeles - but only while the Padres were already down 2-0, because there was no lead left to protect. Then Freddie Freeman turned on a 100.2 MPH fastball and sent it back at 109.1 MPH for an RBI single, pushing the Dodgers ahead 3-0 and effectively ending the game.
That loss was the Padres’ eighth straight, their longest skid in more than a decade. It also fit the larger picture of a team that has been sliding for the better part of the last week and a half.
San Diego’s rookie manager is still getting his bearings, and he’s doing it while working with a new hitting coach and watching Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr., and Jackson Merrill struggle. The Dodgers, meanwhile, keep rolling through injuries and still manage to overwhelm whoever is in front of them.
This wasn’t just about one series, either. Los Angeles has been building this cushion for weeks, and maybe even before the season really got going.
April was their worst month at 16-10, and that came after they won four of their first five games in March. The Padres and Diamondbacks haven’t been able to put much pressure on them, but the Dodgers have done plenty of the work themselves by refusing to give anyone a foothold in the race.
A double-digit lead in the division doesn’t happen by accident. This weekend was just the latest reminder of how wide the gap has become.
The Padres still have talent, and the expanded playoff field leaves room for teams to recover. But eight losses in a row and a closer getting his shot only in a deficit is not the kind of shape anyone wants to be in.
For the Dodgers, coming off back-to-back World Series titles and armed with a lineup full of All-Stars, it was close to a perfect weekend: dominant baseball on one side, visible unraveling on the other.
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