The 2024 NLDS represented so much more than baseball.
Given the recent history of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, this battle has been anticipated since the two teams’ Opening Day series in Seoul, South Korea.
More news: Manny Machado Responds to Dave Roberts’ Claims That Padres Star Throws Ball at Dodgers Manager
The current history between the two baseball clubs may begin with the 2020 NLDS, the first time the two franchises played in October. Los Angeles swept San Diego and won their first World Series victory since 1988.
Two seasons later, in another NLDS game, the 111-win Dodgers expected to stroll over the Padres, but the rivals down the I-5 freeway won 3-1.
Tensions reached an all-time high in 2024, when the Dodgers won 98 regular-season games and San Diego won 93. Following a Wild Card Series sweep of the Atlanta Braves, Padres third baseman Manny Machado stated postgame that the upcoming showdown in Los Angeles was all they were thinking about.
“This is what everybody wanted.”
The Dodgers won Game 1 of the series, but Game 2 brought the intensity to a new level.
Following a home run theft caught by then-Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar, there appeared to be a back-and-forth between him and the fans. Later in the competition, the same conduct persisted, but when objects were thrown on the field, the game had to be postponed.
More objects were tossed, this time by Machado in a video that appeared to show him hurling a baseball toward manager Dave Roberts. The Dodgers manager termed it “unsettling” and “disrespectful” after the game.
The Dodgers went on to win the series and eventually the World Series, but as the two teams prepare to square again in spring training for the first time since October, Roberts appears to have no ill will.
“You’re in an intense series,” Roberts added. “He is going to do everything he can to help his team win, and I am going to do the same.
“I love him like a son, and that’ll never change, but we’re both competitors.”
Roberts and his customary class will lead the Dodgers’ quest to become baseball’s first back-to-back champions in 25 years.
Leave a Reply