It’s the continuation 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 2 of their best-of-five series with the Los Angeles Dodgers Wednesday 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 last Wednesday afternoon. This article was published prior to the conclusion of the series opener Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
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.
Yu Darvish gets a crack against his former teammates as he makes his second postseason start after making 30 regular season starts for the Padres. He finished the regular season 16-8 with a 3.10 ERA, a 0.95 WHIP, 37 walks and 197 s trikeouts over 194.2 innings of work. In the postseason, Darvish is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA, a 0.857 WHIP, no walks and four strikeouts over seven innings of work. Darvish picked up the win in his last start, which came Friday on the road against the Mets in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series. He threw seven innings, allowing one run on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts in a 7-1 Padres triumph. In his last three starts, Darvish is 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA, a 1.105 WHIP, two walks and 18 strikeouts over 19 innings of work. Darvish makes his 11th career start against the Dodgers in this contest. He is 3-5 with a 2.47 ERA, a 0.871 WHIP, 17 walks and 82 strikeouts over 62 innings of work against them. Darvish is 3-5 with a 3.49 ERA, a 1.096 WHIP, 16 walks and 73 strikeouts over 59.1 innings in 10 career starts at Dodger Stadium.