2024 MLB playoffs: Padres vs. Dodgers hits new level, turns into a legitimate rivalry and great theater

This wasn’t a rivalry. Not for years. Not for decades, in fact. 

It appears to finally be all the way there now, though. 

Though close in geographic proximity, it would’ve been laughable to call the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres rivals not so long ago. In order to be a true rivalry, the teams don’t necessarily have to be on even footing, but it’s gotta be within the ballpark. The Padres were little brother to the Dodgers’ big brother and it wasn’t particularly close. The divide was just too vast to call it a legitimate rivalry for so long. 

The 2024 NLDS — which the Padres lead 2-1 after Tuesday night’s Game 3 win — is a continuation of the footing getting closer and closer these last several years, to the point that it’s fair to call this a rivalry from where I sit. The Padres are now one win away from eliminating the NL West-champion Dodgers in the NLDS round for the second time in three seasons. 

It’s more than just the results. Watch all the reactions from the players. They are deeply involved in this rivalry. Both sides. 

Watch Fernando Tatis Jr. stylin’ and profilin’ … 

And then watch Teoscar Hernández match him: 

Yes, players these days come close to home run celebrations like that, but there was extra juice behind these. 

Any good playoff rivalry contains beef (as a general rule of thumb: Beef makes things better almost all the time). It’s been obvious for these first three games that we have some here in this Padres-Dodgers bout. 

Take Dodgers manager Dave Roberts getting close to saying they are the good guys and the Padres are the heels. 

“Clearly that team over there, they like the villain-type kind of role and they feed off of that,” he said before Game 3. 

I found that one interesting because usually the top team is the villain while the underdog is kind of cast in the “hero” role. Many top teams embrace the role of villain. I can’t help but think back a few decades to the Red Sox side suggestion that the Yankees were the “Evil Empire” and the Yankees’ entire fan base embracing such a moniker. Roberts’ stance is harmless and probably irrelevant, but I found it interesting in looking at the big picture here. The main event was obviously the now-infamous throw by Manny Machado in Game 2. 

Roberts and several of his Dodgers players thought Machado threw a ball at Roberts on purpose. 

“It was unsettling,” Roberts said. “Obviously I have a relationship with Manny from years past. There was intent behind it. It didn’t almost hit me because there was a net. And that was very bothersome. If it was intended at me, I would be very — it’s pretty disrespectful. So I don’t know his intent. I don’t want to speak for him. But I did see the video. And the ball was directed at me with something behind it.” 

Padres manager Mike Shildt responded to a question regarding whether or not Machado threw the ball at Roberts on purpose.

“I don’t want to cast stones,” he said. “I’m just not. The answer to your question is no. I don’t think there was any intent at all with that. 

“Manny has exceptional arm talent. I think he proved that on the triple play.” 

The slight dig at the end there was perfect, right? If Manny wanted to hit you, he’d have hit you.

There is, of course, the possibility that Machado meant to throw a one hopper off the net close enough to Roberts to piss the Dodgers off while simultaneously making it enough of a non-threat to give himself deniability. But did he really think through all that or just toss the ball to the side, as it was a discarded baseball? 

I have an easy answer: Who cares? 

It’s nice to see a little contentiousness here in a playoff series. You don’t get a ton of pure hatred in pro sports these days — excluding fan bases, obviously — because so many players have been teammates at some point. So many of them are friendly with one another, so organic disdain between teams is tough to come by. 

There’s at least the appearance of contempt between the two sides in this series and that’s outstanding theater for sports fans. 

The roots here started in 2019, I think. Machado had spent the second half of 2018 with the Dodgers and they made a run to the World Series that year, losing to the Red Sox. He didn’t hit well in the World Series, made the final out and then departed via free agency. He signed a monster contract with the Padres. The Padres also debuted uber-talented Fernando Tatis Jr. in 2019. 

Of course, the Dodgers were in the middle of a run where they have won 11 of the last 12 NL West titles. The one time they didn’t win the division, they won 106 games. The Padres in 2019 went 70-92 and that was their ninth straight losing season. 

Again, that’s no rivalry. The Padres were a punchline to Dodgers’ fans and probably even to the Dodgers themselves, though they wouldn’t likely say as much publicly. 

In the 2020 season, “Slam Diego” caught fire during the 60-game season, and the Padres looked like a force to be reckoned with. The Dodgers swept them in the NLDS and then the Padres fell apart in 2021, going 79-83. 

In 2022, the Padres traded for Juan Soto and made the playoffs. But they also went 5-14 against the mighty, 111-win Dodgers. The Dodgers won Game 1 of the NLDS and it was just more of the same. But then, the Padres won three straight games, including a clinching Game 4 where they were down 3-0 in the bottom of the seventh but scored five runs to steal the game and series. 

Of course, the Padres took a big step back in 2023. Then they were only 50-50 through 100 games this season. Big Brother was still in control and we couldn’t really call it a rivalry. 

Things have changed since. 

The Padres were the best team in baseball in the second half this year. The Dodgers were second. The Dodgers won the NL West, of course, but the Padres won the season series, eight games to five. 

The Padres are still “little brother” here, to be clear, but they have been slowly closing the gap and it’s getting under the skin of the Dodgers. 

It isn’t just Roberts. Here is veteran Dodgers slugger Max Muncy discussing San Diego. 

“The atmosphere here plays off their emotion,” Muncy said. “And we’ve seen that for the last several years, even in regular season games. Just something as simple as a single and you see the guy throwing the bat 30 feet in the air, that really gets the crowd going here.

“That is kind of part of their game is trying to get under your skin and trying to have the emotion come out and get you to do something that you’re not normally doing.”

Jack Flaherty is new to this rivalry, but did you see him screaming at Machado in Game 2?  

There was more between the two of them. 

Take note that Machado is giving it back. It most certainly is not just the Dodgers chirping here. The Padres do not remotely appear intimidated by the big, bad Dodgers. Why would there be? They bounced them in 2022 and won the season series in 2024. Now they lead the NLDS, two games to one. 

There was also Jurickson Profar trolling Dodgers fans — and, well, everyone watching — with his robbery of a would-be Mookie Betts home run in the first inning of Game 2. 

How surreal was it when Mookie Betts hit a home run in Game 3 to basically the same spot, in Petco Park this time, only to have it glance of Profar’s glove? 

Again, this is all such amazing theater. 

It’s too bad this is only the NLDS and not the NLCS or, in an alternate universe, the World Series. 

Something we can start calling it, though, is a rivalry. I think we’re safe there. The vitriol we’ve seen this series in addition to the growing threat the Padres are to the Dodgers makes it one.