It’s the start of the divisional round of the major league baseball playoffs and that brings us a battle of NL West foes in the City of Angels. The San Diego Padres are on the road as they make the trip to play Game 1 of their best-of-five series with the Los Angeles Dodgers Tuesday night. San Diego advanced by blanking the Mets 6-0 on the road in a winner take all Game 3 of their wild card series Sunday night. Los Angeles split a six-game home series with the Rockies to close the regular season as they beat Colorado 6-1 in their regular season finale Wednesday afternoon. In the season series, the Dodgers owned a commanding 14-5 advantage, outscoring the Padres 109-47. That includes taking two of three at Petco Park in the most recent series September 27-29.
San Diego ended up in the wild card round and after splitting the first two games, handcuffed the Mets in the decisive Game 3 to advance to the divisional round. The Padres face a much stiffer challenge than they did in dispatching the Mets as the Dodgers had their number in the regular season. Against the Mets in Game 3, San Diego got two hits each from Trent Grisham (run, RBI), Austin Nola (two RBI), Juan Soto (two RBI) and Manny Machado (RBI) in the victory. Joe Musgrove (1-0) did the job on the mound as he shut the Mets’ bats down, allowing no runs on one hit with one walk and five strikeouts over seven innings of work before turning things over to the bullpen.
Mike Clevinger is slated to take the ball for his first postseason start for the Padres after logging 23 regular season appearances, 22 starts, on the year. He was 7-7 with a 4.33 ERA, a 1.198 WHIP, 35 walks and 91 strikeouts over 114.1 innings of work this season. Clevinger earned the win in his last start, which came October 1 at home against the White Sox. He threw six innings, allowing one run on three hits with no walks and three strikeouts in a game the Padres won by a 5-2 score. In his last three starts, Clevinger is 2-0 with a 3.45 ERA, a 1.09 WHIP, three walks and eight strikeouts over 15.2 innings of work. Clevinger makes his fourth career start against the Dodgers in this contest. He is 0-2 with a 9.69 ERA, a 1.539 WHIP, four walks and 11 strikeouts over 13 innings of work against them. Clevinger is 0-2 with an 11.25 ERA, a 1.75 WHIP, three walks and seven strikeouts over eight innings in two career starts at Dodger Stadium.